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5LIBRMY OF CONGRESS.? 

#§ ha P <pRjW|o i 

J JMe/f.,2>3., I 

# '■ ' # 

i UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, t 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



BY 

GEORGE C. BALDWIN, D.D. 



!±7£ 



NEW YORK: 
b r. Jk. ic k m a. asr & m^soust, 

310 BBOADfAT. 



1860. 







33 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

BLAKEMAN & MASON. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 



STEREOTYPED BY PRINT ED BY 

T. B. Smith & Son, George Russell & Co., 

82 & 84 Beekman street. Duane St. 



PREFACE. 
K — 

Troy, K T., August 1, 1859. 

Rev. G. C. Baldwin, D. D., 

Dear Sir, — Your friends, who 
on a previous occasion advised the publication of your 
Lectures on " Representative Women/'' have not been 
disappointed in the success with which that volume 
has met. They have satisfactory evidence that it has 
done good, and believe that it is adapted to permanent 
usefulness in the thousands of families in whose libra- 
ries it has found a place. They are glad to learn that 
it has still a steady increase of circulation. 

The undersigned, who constitute the present Boards 
of Trustees and Deacons of the Church you have served 
in the ministry now more than fifteen years, have lis- 
tened with interest to your late course upon " Repre- 
sentative Men of the New Testatment," and earnestly 
advise and request their publication. We believe that 
they will not only constitute an appropriate mate vol- 
ume to the " Representative Women," bat embodying, 
as they do, so much of the biographical and ecclesias- 
tical histories of the New Testament, so much of doc- 



IV PREFACE. 



trine and precept in relation to individual character, 
they can not fail of being useful. It gives us pleasure 
to add ? dear sir, that in making this request, we are 
assured that we are not only giving expression to our 
own feelings, but to those of the large audiences who 
listened to them. 

Yours, truly, 
James Wager, Samuel S. Sargeant, 

John B. Ford, James R. Prentice, 

Curtis Wilbur, Joseph Degolyer, 

Calvin Warner, Frederick A. Sheldon, 

Abraham Numan, Jason C. Osgood, 

Justus E. Gregory, George E. Davis, 
Francis A. Fales, James T. Main, 
J. C. Mattice. 



Gentlemen: — Reasons, such as are mentioned in 
your note, have decided the publication of the Course 
of Lectures to which you so kindly allude. I desire, 
in connection, to call attention to a few particulars. 

1. In regard to the title I have given them. As I 
did in the correspondence published in my former vol- 
ume, I now also acknowledge that it was suggested by 
that of Mr. Emerson's excellent book, which has be- 
come a standard work of its class in our literature. 
The wide difference, however between his learned and 



PREFACE. V 

my humble effort is, that while his characters are " Rep- 
resentative Men'* of the world, mine are " Representa- 
tive Men of the New Testament.*' 

2. It is but fair to judge of a book, by a just com- 
parison of its execution with the design of its author. 
My design in these Lectures was simply this. First. 
to collate all the facts recorded in the sacred Scriptures 
concerning these men, together with whatever facts I 
could gather from other reliable sources, so as to pre- 
sent their biographies in a connected form. Next, to 
analyze the characters found in such biographies, and 
develop their leading, and therefore representative ele- 
ments, and finally to deduce from both, lessons of prac- 
tical, present, and permanent importance. This was 
my design ; whether I have succeeded or failed in its 
realization, others must judge. 

3. You will perceive that the plain, sometimes col- 
loquial, often direct style in which these Lectures were 
delivered, is tenaciously retained in their publication. 
This may be an error. Many, I know, will deem it 
such. But when I preached them I addressed you, as 
man to man. This style is my way of doing that. In 
their publication, I desire to speak personally, to the 
large circle to whom the book may come, in the same 
familiar, and, I hope, earnest and honest method. 

4. I acknowledge my sincere gratification in view 



VI PREFACE, 



of the kindness with which my " Representative Wo- 
men" was received by the press and the public, and 
my devout gratitude to God for obvious tokens of his 
gracious blessing which has attended it. To him, "the 
God of our fathers," and our God, I now commend 
this effort, which I deeply feel to be far below what it 
ought to be, with the prayer that in the magnitude of 
his grace, he may make it a blessing to those who may 
peruse it, and an humble means of promoting his own 
glory. 

With sentiments of sincere affection, 

I remain your friend and pastor, 

Geo. C. Baldwin. 

Teot, N. Y., September 1, 1859. 



CONTENTS, 



Every tiling great hath always had its Herald — Greatest Eulogy ever pro- 
nounced — Geographical Position of John at the Jordan — His Personal 
Appearance — History — Jubilant Strain — Thirty Years after — Baptismal 
Scene — Meetings of Representative Men — Darius and Alexander — Diseus 
and Mummius — Henry the Eighth and Francis the First — Napoleon and 
Alexander — Dungeon Scene — Death — The Man — Elements of his Man- 
hood, Physical, Intellectual, Spiritual — The Preacher — Elements of his 
Character, Clearness of Perception — Consecration, Fidelity — Success as 
a Preacher— Characteristics needed in the Ministry of to-day — Educa- 
tional Societies— Theological Institutions — Claims of the Church and the 
Age — Examples of worldly Heroes — Leonidas, Hannibal, Alexander, Na- 
poleon, Revolutionary Fathers — Glorious Reward — Enemies may silence 
Heralds of Christianity, but can not hinder its Progress — Triumph cer- 
tain — Poetry, 13 



2, — perob, ilje f^tmwal p/mr. 



Amount of Biographical Element in the Bible — Good and bad Men — Three 
Herods — Herod the Great — His Character and History — Herod Agrippa 
— His fearful Death — Herod Antipas, our Representative Man — His Wife 
— His incestuous Marriage — The Jezebel of the New Testament — The bold 
Rebuke — Revenge sworn — The Banquet — The dancing Girl — The dance 
Scene — The fearful Request — Compliance — The Charger, with its ghastly 
Contents— Miss Lucy Hooper — Poetry — The Mother of Nero and Lollia — 
The deep-laid Scheme — Christ' s Estimate of Herod — Analysis — Sensuality 
— Its terrible Effects — Henry Ward Beecher — Great Positions can not 
make great Men — Circumstances can not make it Right to do Wrong — 
Validity of Oaths and Promises — Influence of Associates — Dueling — Vio- 
lated Conscience will writhe— Poetry — Alarm to Sensualists, . . .41 

3. — |Mcr, % |mpnbik HTmt* 

Montgomery— The Classifications of Character — Human Nature essentially 
the same in aU Ages — Use of History — Special Value of Gospel History 
— Present Positional Eminence of Peter's Name — " St. Peter's Cathedral' ' 
— " St. Peter's Chair"—" The Pillar of St. Peter"— Outline Facts of his 
Life— Personal Appearance — First Interview with Christ— First spiritual 



V1U CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Development— Peculiar Type of Character— Rough Diamond— Strength of 
Impulse — Large-Heartedness — Constitutional Firmness — Alpine Rocks — 
Men of Mark — Trial of Character— Warning Scene— Grethsemane— Judg- 
ment Hall— The Recognition— Denial— Oaths— Curses— The Look— The 
Oak in a Tempest — Lessons — Progressive Growth of genuine Christian 
Character — Christ's Recognition of Peter's Repentance — The Preacher at 
Pentecost — The first imprisoned Apostle — The Chrysostom, Luther and 
Whitefield of early Christianity — His Death — Gracious Sovereignty, . 65 

-L — fiibng, % gitakbus P'mr. 

Edward Everett's Challenge for an Historical Parallel met — Choosing only 
twelve Disciples, Why did Christ select as one of them such a man as 
Judas t — An answer suggested — The Biography of Judas — Ghrist's early 
Recognition of his Character — Three Resolutions— A Social Scene — The 
Death of Hope — The traitorous Proposition — The Bargain —The Betrayal 
— Remorse— Suicide— What was the real Character of Judas?— Analysis, 
Answer, and Proof— Was he a Representative Character ? — Addison — The 
Root of all Evil — Its Growth and Influence — The Prevalence of the Judas 
Question, " What ivill ye giveV — Present Consequences of successful 
Avarice — The Fable of Midas — Was Judas disappointed at the Result 
of his Treachery t — Wicked Men always are— Nature and Operation of a 
false Repentance — Destiny, . » 87 



5 — loljiv, % Drlo&tb pan. 



The Difference between Men's Characters and Reputations — More over- 
rated than underrated Men — Causes of this—- The true Basis of Reputation 
— Much to interest us in John — Sketch of his History — Nicephorus — Given 
Names — Why was the title of " Mothor of Zebedee's Children" given to 
her? — The maternal Request — The Divine Answer — The upper Room — 
The Cross — The open Sepulchre — John's official Work — Patmos — His Per- 
sonal Appearance — Criticism on Leonardi de Vinci's Picture — Protestant 
Impressions derived from Papist Conceptions — Surnames — Ambition — 
Strong, manly Elements — Jerome — Mattathias Claudius — Demand for an 
Artist — Wisdom of Christ in the selection of his Apostles— Sectarianism 
— Peculiarity of John's Piety — Need and Trayer of the Church, . .111 



Jl. — Eli o mas, lljc Jtoubfcr. 



Different kinds of Sympathy— More expected in this Lecture than any 
other in the Course — Two Classes in the College of Apostles — The Con- 
nection of Matthew with Thomas— Incidents of his Life — The Resurrection 
— The Night-Meeting — The Absent One — The great Loss — The stubborn 
Doubt — The second Night-Meeting — Departing Clouds — Origen — Jerome 
— "St. Thomas Christians," an existing eastern Sect — Brahmins — Justi- 
fication of the Title given him in this Lecture — Classification of Doubters 



CONTENTS. ix 



PAGE 

— Causes of Doubting— Their Prevalency— Rowland Hill— Like Causes 
always produce like Effects — Testimony of Pastoral Experience — General 
Application— Eliezer — Poetry, 137 

7. — |licobcmus, f be ilelicucms Inquirer. 

Dignity of Investigation— Galileo — Newton — Watt — Ratio of the Dignity — 
Its highest Development — An Art G-allery — Social Position of Nicodemus 
— The Rotunda of the Sanhedrim — Qualifications for Membership — The 
three richest Men in Jerusalem — His Position as a Religionist — Excite- 
ment in the Holy City — Trouble in the Pharisee's Heart — Montezuma 
and Cortes — Sir William Wallace and Robert Bruce — Mirabeau and Marie 
Antoinette — John Milton and Galileo— April in Judea — The Purpose con- 
summated — The Result — Did Xicodemus become a Christian ? — The part 
of Candor and Intelligence in regard to Christianity — Honest Inquirers 
find more than they anticipate— Swartz — Newton — Columbus — Difficulty 
of comprehending spiritual Things — Grounds of the Necessity of Regen- 
eration, 1C1 



& — gummas, % 3Cuu\ 

Making too much of mere Enjoyment in Reading or Hearing — Unpleasant 
Truths often most Profitable — The Connections of the sacred Narrative 
of Ananias — Sudden Increase of the Church — Great Destitution — The 
Method of its Supply — The Shakers — Joses — The Record of a Lie and its 
Consequences — The essential Nature of a Lie illustrated — One Form of 
Lying — Mrs. Opie's Catalogue — The Guilt of the Sin — Violation of gen- 
eral Law, and specific Injunction — Mischievous Results— One of the worst 
Things that can be said about a Person — Lord Bacon — Aristotle — Penal- 
ties of moral Government — Appeal to Parents — Egyptian Pyramids — 
Fearful Responsibility — Appeal to Youth, 1S9 

IT. — Sicpljcu, tlje JHarluu-glcacoiL 

The Class of Men which most Honor all Enterprise— Poetry— The first 
Christian Martyr— History— First Imprisonment— Emergency— Election 
of Deacons— The Debate— Apprehension— Grand Picture— John Huss — 
Luther— Splendid Defense— Unearthly Glory— Murder— The Burial- 
Analysis of Character— Active Piety— Invincible Courage— The Martyr 
Spirit— Persecutions— Nero — Domitian— Marcus Aurelius — Dark Ages — 
Elements— Fanaticism— Caesar— Nelson at Trafalgar— A Martyr's Reward 
— Influences — Poetry — Avengement, 211 

Itf — 3% Hantclcss porn! gouwj Pair, 

Interesting Fact— Different Applications of same fundamental Truth— A 
Young Man— WeaLh— High Position— The Impressive Scene— The Re- 

X* 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

jected Test— The Important Question— Immortality— Eternal Life — Eter- 
nal Death — Relation of Character aud Destiny — Christ no Universalist — 
Condition of Eternal Life— Was literal Obedience demanded ?— Historical 
Circumstances — The Essential Requisition — Its Necessity — Perpetuity — 
Appeal — Two Facts — The Mysterious Jury — Endless Consequences, . 237 

II. — §igripp, % gilmost (K^risthnr. 

Ecclesiastical History connected with this Subject — The Conspiracy, Trial, 
and Triumph — Sketch of Agrippa — His Visit to Festus — The Strange 
Meeting — The Official Embarrassment — The Prisoner — His Appearance 
and Defense — His direct Appeal — Its sad Failure — Three different Types 
of Men in Conjunction, Festus, Agrippa, and Paul — Biblical Relations of 
Conversion to a Man himself— The Divine Method — Persuasive Power — 
Ordinary Effect of the Gospel — Different Circumstances in which it is ex- 
perienced — Reasons on account of which it is resisted — Mistakes — Fear- 
ful Danger connected with such Conditions — Appeal, .... 2G5 

12. — Z\t failor, or t|e (Eankcicb pair. 

Philippi — Brutus — Antony — Shakespeare — Historical Associations, secular 
and religious — The Christian Mayflower — First Gospel Convert and Bap- 
tism in Europe — The Female Soothsayer — The Scourging and Imprison- 
ment — Ancient Jails — Midnight Praises — Earthquake — The convicted Sin- 
ner' s Cry — The Conversion — Evidences of its Genuineness — Mysterious 
Movements of a Sovereign God — The invariable Effects of the Gospel — 
Proofs of their Reality in this Case — The Great Question, "What must I 
do to be Saved ? — What it involves — The Gospel Answer — Its Brevity, 
Certainty, and Reliableness — Experimental Proof, ..... 283 



13. — ffysad, tlje feat glint. 



Estimates of him by Cave, Monod, Stanley — Poetry— Grounds of Diffi- 
dence in regard to this Effort— Survey of the State of the Christian Cause 
— A Momentous Exigency — Mysterious Providence — Tarsus — "Wonderful " 
Boys — Saul's History— Martyrdom of Stephen— "Why did the Execution- 
ers lay their Garments at Saul's feet ? — The Persecution — The Journey — 
The predestined Hour — Grace triumphant — Synopsis of the Missionary 
Labors of the Apostle — His Death — His Personal Appearance — Mental 
Qualities — Education, spiritual Gifts, and ecclesiastical Offices — His Toils 
and Sufferings — Influence, Past, Present, and Prospective — Analysis of 
the Elements of true Greatness — Was he an Orator ? — His Powers as a 
Writer — The World's great Men, great in only one or a few Particulars 
— Daniel Webster — Indebtedness to Christianity — Proof of the Truth of 
Christianity — Power of Prayer, 313 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

Cfje |)entli) f rrdcljer. 

"A BUENING AND SHINING LIGHT." 



Events generally are preceded by heralds of their 
coming. Such is the order of nature. The blossom 
is heralded by the bud, and the fruit by the blossom — 
night by twilight, and day by the glow of morning. 
The splendors of summer are heralded by the beauties 
of spring — the maturity of autumn by the growth of 
summer, and the death of winter by the decay of au- 
tumn. 

Such is the order of Providence. Each of those 
events, that loom up like mountains in the scenery of 
history, every discovery of science, every achievement 
of art, every outgrowth of philosophy, every great step 
in general progress, has had from the beginning its ap- 
propriate harbinger. 

Such was the fact in regard to that grandest of all 
events — the advent of the world's Redeemer. It was 
preceded by " wonders in the heavens above, and signs 
in the earth beneath." Over Bethlehem trembled that 
mysterious star, whose wondrous radiance never before 
nor since illumined earth's night-sky, announcing his 



14 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



birth; and thirty years afterwards, when about to 
commence his public work, he was preceded by "the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord, make his paths straight." 

We can not but feel a deep interest in the character of 
this herald preacher, when it is remembered that upon 
him our Lord pronounced the highest eulogium he ever 
uttered with reference to a human being. He declared 
of John that u he toas a burning and shining light" 
and that u he was more than a prophet" thus placing 
him above that galaxy of worthies, which constituted 
the chief glory of the Hebrew nation. Our Lord said 
more than even this. He affirmed that "of all born 
of women, there had not arisen a greater than John 
the Baptist" thus placing him on the loftiest pinnacle 
of human greatness. 

Let us briefly review the record of Johrts exterior 
life ; and then attempt an analysis of his charac- 
ter as a man and a preacher. 

In order to bring him distinctly before our minds, 
let us look at him as he is first presented to us in the 
gospel, standing on the verdant bank of the Jordan, 
whose waters were alike renowned and hallowed by his 
sacred ministry. Think of his relative geographical 
position there. Eastward of him are the venerable 
mountains of Moab, foremost of which Pisgah towers in 
lonely grandeur, while below T it lie, in all their famed 
luxuriance, the Moabitish plains. Northward glitter 
the snowy peaks of Lebanon, between whose lofty sum- 
mit and himself rolls the lovely valley of the Jordan. 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 15 



Westward stretch the plains of Jericho, skirted by the 
mountains on which Jerusalem sits enthroned. South- 
ward rise, in broken ranges, the wilderness hills of 
Judea, amid which the Dead Sea lies embosomed ; while 
over him is suspended the cloudless magnificence of 
an oriental sky. 

Look now at the preacher himself. He is a stalwart, 
strange-appearing man, of some thirty years of age, 
who has been in "the deserts of Judea until the day 
of his shewing unto Israel. 7 ' There, amid stern soli- 
tudes, wild ravines, barren crags, living upon the 
plainest food, drinking from nature's pure fountains, 
communing with God, who " sanctified him from his 
mother's womb," and appointed him to a sublime mis- 
sion, he has been maturing physically, intellectually, 
and spiritually, for a career which is to be brief in its 
duration, brilliant in its success, and terrible in its ter- 
mination. His apparel is peculiar. His form is robed 
in coarse cloth, made of the shaggy camel's hair, and 
a leathern girdle encircles his loins. A heavy beard 
falls like a shield upon his broad breast. His brow is 
full and ample, his eye clear and piercing, and his 
countenance is radiant with high intellectuality, mel- 
lowed and beautified by long-continued and profound 
communing with grand spiritualities ; while an intense 
enthusiasm, one great purpose, burns in every glance, 
and glows in every expression of his features. 

Of this man the sacred record says that he was 
both the object and fulfillment of several specific proph- 
ecies, uttered many centuries before his birth ; that 



16 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



his birth itself was attended by miraculous interposi- 
tions, and that when first clasped to the bosom of his 
joyful father, that venerable priest's soul was stirred 
by the spirit of prophecy, while from his aged lips 
broke forth these jubilant words : 

" And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the 
Highest ; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord 
to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to 
his people by the remission of their sins, through the 
tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from 
on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit 
in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our 
feet into the way of peace " 

The record further states that this wonderful child 
" was filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth," and 
that " he grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in 
the deserts until the day of his shewing unto Israel." 

From that point we have no further account of him 
during thirty years. An entire generation of earth's 
inhabitants had passed away, before he again appeared 
on the historic scene. At length the predestined period 
came. The man was prepared for the work, and the 
work was ready for the man. 

Then, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when 
the universal Jewish mind was agitated by conflicting 
emotions, stirred to its lowest depths by a complex 
sentiment of proud independence — hatred against Ro- 
man tyranny, and hope of a Deliverer ; when gross for- 
mality in religion and civil violence were everywhere 
rampant; when the voice of no living prophet had 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 17 



been heard during the long and dreary waste of four 
hundred and fifty years ; when the public feeling hung 
poised and tremulous — -just six months before the man- 
ifestation of the Saviour of the world — this preacher 
came forth from his desert home, and proclaimed in 
trumpet tones, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is 
at hand; prepare ye the way of the Lord." His proc- 
lamation, reverberating like echoing thunder through 
all ranks of society, shook the land, startling populace, 
priest, and politician, insomuch that l ' all Jerusalem, and 
all Judea, and all the region about the Jordan" poured 
forth their thronging thousands to hear him ; and mul- 
titudes were " baptized by him in the Jordan, confess- 
ing their sins." 

In this work of preaching and baptizing six months 
passed away, during which he was ''the observed of 
all observers," the most popular and successful man of 
his day, gathering about himself every element of public 
curiosity and all the long-cherished hopes of Judaism. 
Again and again deputations came to him with the in- 
quiry, "Art thou the Christ?" and his constant re- 
sponse was, "lam the voice of one crying, Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord : repent, for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand." 

Look, now, on the crowning scene of this man's pub- 
lic life, which, however familiar, can never lose its in- 
terest. 

It is spring time. The pure air is redolent with the 
fragrance of fresh flowers. The sacred Jordan, over 
whose waters the Baptist's voice has so often echoed, is 



18 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



at its flood. In bold relief upon its bank stands the 
preacher, surrounded by a vast crowd of eager hearers. 
The point of the river before us has rich historial asso- 
ciations. Here the Israelites first passed through into 
the promised land. Here in after years the waters were 
divided, when smitten by the prophet's mantle, and from 
yon further bank Elijah stepped into the chariot of fire 
which God sent to bear him to heaven. Do you wonder 
that John commenced his ministry at a place so sacred 
in the memories of the pious of all ages ? Observe, now, 
that he has ceased speaking. Unwonted fire beams in 
his eyes. Unwonted, strong, expectant energy makes 
his stalwart form tremble. Ah ! he is conscious of a 
presence which has never graced his audiences before ! 
He is silent, and a strange stillness settles down on that 
multitudinous mass, unbroken save by the ripples of 
wavelets against the reedy shore, for all intuitively feel 
that some august event is at hand. All eyes are fixed 
on the preacher's, but his own are riveted upon the form 
of a majestic stranger who has stood unnoticed amid 
the crowd. 

Conceive now, if you can, the surprise, the amaze- 
ment, of that crowd of expectant Jews, as, pointing with 
his right hand toward the stranger, and in a voice heavy 
Yfith the profoundest emotions, John utters that grand 
exclamation which generations and centuries had lis- 
tened in vain to hear — that glorious exclamation which 
revealed the speedy fulfillment of the long line of types, 
from the lamb on Abel's altar down to the last accepted 
sacrifice — that brief exclamation, which has thrilled 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 19 



through human souls during eighteen hundred years, 
and has become so familiar to you now, but which then 
for the first time burst upon mortal ears—" Behold the 
Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world/" 
The wondering amazement deepens as the Messiah ap- 
proaches his herald and asks for baptism. ! see the 
preacher's head droop, his eyes grow dim with tears, 
his manly form shrink ! Hear his voice break with 
emotion, as he responds, " I have need to be baptized 
of thee, and comest thou tome?"' Calmly Jesus says, 
" Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to ful- 
fill all righteousness." Hesitating no longer, the illus- 
trious administrator and the far more illustrious can- 
didate go down into the water, and ' £ Jesus is baptized 
of John in the Jordan." Then, according to one evan- 
gelist, " being baptized, Jesus prayed :" and in this first 
public prayer of our Lord, offered up from amid the 
waters of his baptism — that same voice which had pealed 
forth from heaven over the slumbering chaos of old, 
when he said, ''Let there be light" — arose to that 
heaven in tones of melody softer than the breathings 
of an iEolian harp. After which, "he went up straight- 
way out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened 
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending 
like a dove and lighting; on him. And lo. a voice from 
heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son. in whom I am 
well pleased." 

And, strange as it may seem, after the testimony 
borne to him "'the next day," these two distinguished 
personages, who sustained such intimate relations to 



20 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



each other, never met again on earth — never met again 
until, their mortal life-purposes accomplished, wearing 
crowns of victory — one gained on Calvary, and the 
other in Herod's dungeon — both stood approved before 
the throne of the eternal Father, 

Think for a moment of the interest which culminated 
over the meeting of this herald and his Lord. In them 
ages met together. The future confirmed in Christ the 
promise of the past ; and the past did homage to the 
future, when John said, "He must increase, but I 
must decrease." It was in fact the meeting of the old 
covenant and the new, and the sanction of the new by 
the old. History contains the record of many memor- 
able meetings of distinguished characters, such as that 
which transpired when Darius the Persian and Alex- 
ander the Macedonian met at Arbela, and oriental lux- 
ury yielded to European valor ; and that when Diaeus 
the Greek and Mummius the Roman, met, and the 
refinement of Greece gave way before the energy of 
Rome; and that when Henry VIII. and Francis I. 
met on the " field of the cloth of gold," and settled the 
feucls of centuries between England and France. And 
that, too, was a brilliant historic meeting, when Napo- 
leon I., the representative of plebeian genius, and Alex- 
ander 1. 3 the representative of monarchic ancestral dig- 
nity, met on the " raft of Tilsit" to decide the destinies 
of Europe. But these, and all similar meetings, with 
their gorgeous pomp and worldly results, dwindle into 
absolute insignificance before that on the Jordan's bank, 
of the world's Saviour and his introducer, whose com- 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 21 



bined temporal and spiritual consequences permeate the 
world to-day, shall reach through all generations in 
earth's " ages to come/'' and then flow over and mingle 
with and give their coloring to the great currents of 
eternity. 

A single scene more claims your attention ; it is the 
final one. The ancient fortress of Machaerus rises be- 
fore us, with its massive walls, barred windows, heavy 
doors, and stern Eoman guard. Passing through its 
vaulted gateway, along its gloomy corridors, down a 
stone stairway, we enter one of its dismal dungeons, 
where sits a pale, wan, chained prisoner. Who is he ? 
Ah ! it is the once popular preacher, upon whose min- 
istry thousands on thousands hung with delight. Where- 
fore is he here ? Has he violated any law ? Has he 
committed any crime ? Nay. nay : he is in prison now 
for the "word of God, and the testimony of Jesus.*' 
In the discharge of his duty he fearlessly rebuked the 
royal Herod for his foul and incestuous marriage ; and 
the iron hand of guilty power is on him now, and has 
been during eighteen long and weary months. And 
you may imagine how irksome such imprisonment, for 
so long a time, must be to one whose life has been 
spent amid free air on free mountains. But this is not 
the worst of his case. The masses who once crowded 
around and admired him have now forgotten him ; only 
a few disciples have remained faithful in his misfortune 
and disgrace. Nor is this the worst. During all this 
time Jesus, whom he had heralded and baptized, has 
not visited him once, has not sent even a single word 



22 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



of sympathy to his lonely dungeon. This strange and 
appalling fact has made him nervous, sad, and sorrow- 
ful. Gloomy doubts, horrid fears, like boding spec- 
ters, have begun to flit around him through the gloom, 
and distress his spirit intensely. He can endure it no 
longer, and sends to the Lord a deputation, who soon 
return with the glorious message which causes the 
clouds to pass away from his brow and heart, spectral 
doubts to disappear, and makes him forget his own ig- 
nominy and danger in the assured certainty that he 
whom he baptized is the Messiah, that the work he be- 
gan is progressing ; and enables him to calmly wait for 
whatever doom may be in reserve for him. 

He shall not wait long. 

It is the still hour of midnight, and on his prison 
couch the doomed preacher sleeps soundly and sweetly, 
while all around him is silent as the house of death. 
At last the hour of his deliverance has struck, and the 
grating noise of the opening door awakens the sleeper ; 
and he sees by the gleams of the torchlight the form 
of his executioner approach. Full well he knows that 
death came into that opened door, with that government 
officer. But look at him now ! No tremor shakes that 
wasted form. No fear blanches those sunken cheeks. 
No tears dim those grand eyes. No weak, faltering 
words fall from those pallid lips. But committing his 
soul for the last time into the hands of his heavenly 
Father, he receives the murderous blow which severs 
his head from his body; and while his blood gushes 
forth upon the dungeon floor, and that poor, ghastly, 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 23 



gory head is borne to Herod's palace, his freed spirit 
speeds its upward way into the sheltering bosom of his 
God ! Farewell, thou proto-martyr preacher ! thou art 
beyond the tyrant's power now; immortal amaranth 
bedecks thy triumphant immortality, and as we gaze 
upon thee in thy resplendent glory, we almost envy 
that toil and suffering which were at once its percursor 
and pledge ! 

Thus much with regard to his exterior life. Let us 
now pass to a consideration of his interior character 
as a man and a preacher. And at the outset of this 
branch of our subject, permit me to remark again that 
we can not but feel a deep interest in the study of a 
character upon which our divine Lord pronounced such 
a lofty eulogium ; we can not fail to be impressed with 
the conviction that that character must have been made 
up of a rare combination of model elements : elements 
which are needed in the ministry of to-day ; elements 
which Educational societies and Theological institutions 
should aim at developing in those young men, who, 
under their training, are preparing to engage in the 
sublime work which John commenced, and occupy po- 
sitions, certainly not identical with, and yet as certainly 
in some respects similar to that which he occupied. 

What were some of these ? 

1. A noble type of manhood. 

He was a man before he was a preacher; and he 
never could have become the preacher he did, had he 
not been the man he was. Think of his physical man- 
hood. It was strong, vigorous, pure, unweakened by 



24 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



a single luxury, unstained by a single vice. You be- 
hold his physical passions all subjected to the control 
of a rightly directed will. You see him practicing the 
severest self-denial — evermore turning aside from the 
seductions of a corrupt society, and the fascinations of 
sensual pleasures. 

Think of his intellectual and spiritual manhood, 
and you discover a mind of exalted order, cultured 
and developed, a heart full of noble and generous af- 
fections, a spiritual nature which grasped with death- 
less tenacity the sublimest truths, and maintained them 
amidst the opposition of a hostile world. In that na- 
ture was a culmination of moral graces, a humility 
which the greatest success could not corrupt, a devotion 
which nothing could divert, and a magnanimity which 
no circumstances could contract ; for in the hour of his 
grandest triumph he said, " I am not worthy to unloose 
the latchet of his shoes ; he must increase, but I must 
decrease." There was no moment when he was not 
perfectly willing to have his morning glory absorbed 
in the superior splendor of the rising sun. To these 
attributes of his physical, intellectual, and spiritual 
nature was superadded, in an eminent degree, the in- 
fluences of the Holy Spirit. This gave its crowning 
glory to his manhood. This enabled him to come in 
the u power and spirit of Elijah." Such a type of 
manhood the ministry of Christ has ever needed ; es- 
pecially does it need it in the present age. Do I err 
in affirming that never since the world began has so 
high an estimate been placed by society upon mere 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 25 



manhood as at this hour ? that its influence was never 
before so palpably recognized as a mighty potentiality 
in all departments of life : and that its relation to the 
office and success of the preacher was never so vital, so 
essential as now ? Is it not obviously true, that other 
things being equal, a minister is respected, influential. 
and successful just in the ratio of the character of his 
manhood ? The fact is, that no man needs a healthy, 
well-developed, vigorous body more than does a preacher. 
No man needs a mind, cultured, trained, expanded, 
and well furnished, more than does the minister of 
Jesus. Xo man needs the possession and development 
of high moral virtues more than he. In truth, what 
is a sadder sight than to see one who combines great 
intellectual power with a dwarfed moral development — 
one who surrounds himself with a halo of brilliancy in 
the pulpit, but whose private life is darkened by envy, 
jealousy, covetousness or ambition ? Learning, elo- 
quence, oratory, are all valuable, but a true, generous, 
christian manhood is worth more than they all. The uni- 
versal heart of society reverences and bows before its 
native majesty : men can not help honoring it, and 
God delights in approbating it. 

To no class on earth, therefore, does the dying advice 
of Israel's king to his son, and which is echoed in apos- 
tolic injunction, " Show thyself a man," " Quit your- 
selves like men/' apply with such direct and personal 
force as to ministers of the gospel; and any system 
of education, philosophy, or doctrine, which damages a 
student's manhood, must of necessity be radically wrong. 



i 



26 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



The fact is, that the churches need and call loudly 
for broadly -developed men for pastors ; the truth needs 
strong men for its defense and propagation ; the world 
needs men to lead it back to its allegiance to God. 
And I care not whatsoever else one possesses — how 
muchsoever else he possesses — if he be not a high- 
minded, pure, honest, true man, able to rise above the 
mean pettinesses of selfishness, the hollow and narrow 
conventionalities of worldliness, break clown and tram- 
ple under his indignant feet the iron trammels of big- 
otry and stand self-poised amid the gloomiest discour- 
agements, and endure with fortitude the inevitable ills 
of his position — then he is not, what John was, the 
man for the times, the man whom the great work of 
God and humanity calls for. His education, his diploma, 
his black coat and white cravat, his official importance 
and professional dignity, his splendid sermons and me- 
chanical oratory, will not, can not make up for the lack 
of this. Congregations may listen to him, may admire 
his abilities, but they can not in their hearts respect, 
love, or venerate him. Whereas, if he possess this, and 
it is consecrated by the presence and power of the Holy 
Spirit, although he may not have the other attainments 
to which I have referred, that sanctified manhood will 
keep him awake to the lofty solemnities of his position, 
make him sympathetic with all the wants and woes of 
humanity, cause him to abound in every good word and 
work, and thus secure to him the love and confidence 
of all the good, and, in spite of themselves, the respect 
of all the bad. Herod, in all his pomp of power, feared 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 27 



and respected the humble Baptist in his coarse robe of 
camel's hair : for his own nature, true to itself, told him 
that the royalty of John's resplendent manhood was 
vastly superior to his own mere positional regality. 

2. What were his characteristics as a 'preacher? 

This was his distinctive official work. " In those days 
came John the Baptist, preaching." By this method 
he shook the Judean world and laid broad and deep the 
foundations of the new dispensation. And how fearful 
were the solemnities which clustered around his minis- 
try ! For it was his duty, not merely to announce the 
welcome intelligence that the Messiah and his kingdom 
were at hand, but by the proclamation of stern and 
unwelcome truths to prepare his way. 

And the first thing that we observe in his official 
character is. the clearness with which he saw and com- 
prehended the great spiritualities which God sent 
him to preach. Time sufficient to obtain this had 
given to him. He had not been prematurely hurried 
into his work. He did not commence until the ma- 
turity of thirty years was upon him : and. therefore, 
when he did enter upon it. his mind was full of distinct 
perceptions, and his heart was full of experimental re- 
alizations, of that truth. 

Another point is. the entireness of his consecration 

to his distinctive mission. He made that the single 

object of life. To that he subordinated every thing. 

a that neither Judean politics, nor literature. :::: 

business ever diverted him for a moment. 

And still another is. the unflinching fidelity with 



28 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



which he met and discharged the responsibilities of 
his official position. He never made an effort to ac- 
commodate the doctrines which God sent him to preach 
to the taste or prejudice of his hearers. In fact, he 
was an intense Christian radical, laying " the ax at 
the root of the tree;" hurling denunciations against 
domineering sectarians, and warning them in awful 
tones to ''flee from the wrath to come;" while with 
equal fidelity he rebuked the general bigotry of the 
Jews, urging upon them repentance toward God and 
faith in the coming Messiah. Moreover, he charged 
the governmental officers to be honest, and the Roman 
soldiers to commit no violence. With the dauntlessness 
of Moses before Pharabh, the fire of Elijah on Carmel, 
the energy of Peter at Pentecost, and the majesty of 
Paul on Mars hill ; indifferent alike to the applause 
and the approbation of his hearers, he proclaimed, with 
the earnestness of his concentrated nature, the solemn 
truth with which he was commissioned. And more 
than this, he dared to rebuke special iniquity in high 
places. He exposed and condemned before earth and 
heaven the foul and corrupting wickedness of Herod. 
This, however, was collateral to, although connected 
with, the great specific w r ork of preaching the atoning, 
sin-bearing Christ, who was about to come, as the only 
hope of the world. Do you wonder that with such 
characteristics he was a powerful and successful preach- 
er, whose influence permeated his age ? Do you wonder 
that the relations of his ministry with that of our Lord 
were so intimate and glorious? or that, many years 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 29 



afterwards, when Paul visited the distant city of Ephe- 
sus, he found disciples there who still bore his name ? 
or that to this day, after the lapse of eighteen hundred 
years, a sect is found in Mesopotamia and Persia who 
call themselves "Disciples of John?" 

I now submit to you that these characteristics are the 
needed elements of the ministry of to-day. Do you 
doubt it ? Let us see. 

Is not a clear, comprehensive, scriptural understand- 
ing of what we are to preach — such as this preacher 
had — a systematic and thorough theological education, 
which shall put us in possession of the great facts and 
doctrines of primitive Christianity, in their objective 
and subjective relations, necessary to enable us to cope 
successfully with the deadly foes of' the gospel, which 
the neology of Germany, the transcendental philosophy 
and hydra-headed fanaticism of our own land have 
given birth to during the past generation ? The sim- 
ple fact is, that much of the thinking, the philosophy, 
the sentimentalism, the lecturing, and the preaching 
of the present day, mixes up error with truth, and, 
calling its product the gospel, baptizes it in the name 
of Christ, and yet absolutely ignores the fundamental 
truths of vital Christianity. Loudly, therefore, do 
present exigencies call for preachers who know the 
gospel, are able to separate the wheat from the chaff, 
the precious from the vile ; preachers who shall be able 
to feed with solid nutriment the flock of God, and 
confound their foes by warm, living, irresistible mani- 
festations of the truth. 



30 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Again I ask, is not such entire devotion to his spe- 
cific work, as characterized the Baptist, also a needed 
element in the present ministry ? Is not the commis- 
sion specific — " Go preach the gospel V ' In the solemn 
act of ordination are we not set apart for this distinct- 
ive work ? Is not a constant concentration of all our 
powers essential to the faithful discharge of its perilous 
solemnities ? True, men are needed in other spheres 
of toil connected with Christ's kingdom, and the King 
in Zion has made preparations for that necessity. Some 
of those positions are desirable and influential, but are 
any of them so high and glorious as that of preaching 
Christ ? ! tell me, in the wide world, is there a man 
who occupies a sublimer moral altitude than he w T ho, as 
a preacher sent from God, as was John, stands up be- 
fore his fellow-men, and out of a cultured, sanctified 
mind, and a loving, yearning heart, proclaims to them 
those great truths upon which their destiny is suspended ; 
and, as Christ's accredited ambassador, beseeches them 
to become reconciled to God and receive eternal re- 
demption through the merit of atoning blood ? Verily 
such a work is worthy of the concentrated energy and 
the life-long toil of any man. This view of their work 
made our fathers love to preach, transformed their plain 
pulpits into thrones, and made their ministry their crown 
and glory. This led them to exclaim, " Kings of the 
earth, keep your diadems — politicians, have your offices 
of emolument and power — misers, hoard your gold — 
worldlings, enjoy your pleasures — for us it is honor 
enough, glory enough, to be heralds of salvation, 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 31 



proclaimers of " the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God. 77 

And lastly, ought not that uncompromising fideli- 
ty which distinguished John's official life, to character- 
ize that of every minister of the gospel ? Exigencies 
which demand this moral element of character exist now 
as truly as they did them Indeed, temptations to com- 
promise the truth are frequent and powerful. There- 
fore it is, that for a preacher now to lay himself on the 
high altar of duty, as John did, and preach the whole 
truth in opposition to the prejudices, errors, and tem- 
poral interests of his hearers ; to be no time-server, no 
tickler of the popular ear, no caterer to a vitiated pub- 
lic taste, no flatterer of mammon ; to tear away the 
sanctimonious mask of hypocrisy, expose the shriveled 
heart of greed, hurl heaven's thunderbolts against the 
impiety of " macadamized bigotry," the sinfulness of 
oppression, and the myriad schemes of remorseless self- 
ishness : for a preacher, I say, to do his whole duty in 
an age like ours, when there is so much ostentatious 
religion, which lifts its jeweled hands to God in pro- 
fessed worship, but will not stretch them forth to help 
suffering man ; which, on set occasions, anoints its 
head w T ith the oil of sanctity, but will not defile itself 
with the tears and blood of the poor and wretched — 
which makes the law of society and not the law of God 
its standard — fosters pride and not humility, self-con- 
ceit and not self-distrust — weaves out its own gaudy 
righteousness and rejects the seamless robe of Jesus — ■ 
submits to no self-denial, but wallows in self-indulgence 



32 REPRESENTATIVE MEN, 



— which hires a servant by the year, in the garb of a 
minister, to bear the cross of which it is ashamed, and 
leaves prayer meetings and Sabbath schools to be sus- 
tained by what it calls the u poorer classes," and sits 
calmly by, in satin and broadcloth, surrounded by lux- 
uries, while our institutions of learning and benevolence 
languish for lack of aid — which, in fact, comparatively 
puts a penny in the treasury of the Lord, and lavishes 
uncounted wealth upon itself, and demands that the 
ministry prophesy unto it smooth things — I say, for a 
preacher to do his whole duty in circumstances like 
these, and thus jeopardize position, reputation, influ- 
ence, and perhaps even life itself, demands a heroism 
compared with which mere physical bravery is cow- 
ardice ; a heroism w T hich can draw its power from un- 
seen spiritualities, yea, from the very heart of the in- 
visible God ; a heroism which, in its sublime mightiness, 
shall be able to gather strength from weakness, pros- 
perity from adversity, victory from apparent defeat, 
hope from despair, life from death. 

Friends, bear with and honor those who approximate 
in any good degree this lofty ideal. Sometimes they 
may sorely tax your patience, even offend you. Some- 
times they may go directly across your cherished con- 
victions, and arouse ghastly prejudices which lurk in 
your nature, perhaps unconscious to yourself. Some- 
times they may put the keen knife into the very hearv 
of your party spirit, sorely wound your pride, and sadlj 
damage your business. Honor such men, I beseech you, 
for they are honest and true. They fear God and \ioi 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 33 



you ; therefore, they dare to tell you the truth, seeking 
thereby to benefit you and glorify God. Sometimes 
you may think they go too far on great moral public 
questions ; and perhaps they do — perhaps they give them 
undue prominence. But remember that it is an his- 
torical fact, that great moral enterprises have always 
been carried on by moral oscillations, at one time the 
truth has seemed to swing to one extreme and then to 
the other, and yet between these the sovereign Jeho- 
vah has steadily woven out the resplendent plan of his 
eternal purposes. 

As I have more than implied, our representative 
preacher found such fidelity perilous. On account of 
it, he was banished from society and immured like a 
felon in a felon's dungeon. It cost him not merely po- 
sition but life. It brought to him death in one of its 
most horrid forms — in the most dismal circumstances. 
With no friend to cheer his last mortal hour, no living 
voice to speak one consoling word, no sympathetic heart 
upon which he could lean and gather strength from its 
pulsations, at the gloomy midnight hour he fell beneath 
the murderous ax, a martyr to his fidelity. Ah, me ! 
how many thousands since that dreadful night have 
sealed their testimony with their blood ! ye glorious 
army of martyrs, who ascended to heaven from dire 
dungeons and blazing stakes — the noblest inheritors of 
true glory are ye ! Nearest the throne, amid the first 
outgleamings of the Godhead do ye now stand ! Though 
despised by the world while here, ye were its noblest 
benefactors, and 

2* 



34 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



" Never shall ye rest unsung 
"While Gratitude can find a tongue ; 
Twine, Humanity, a wreath for them 
More fadeless than the diadem." 

In the prosecution of substantially the same work, 
let us emulate their high example. What though it 
still be encompassed by peril, shall we shrink from it on 
that account, while from above the storm clouds, above 
the din of conflict, we hear the voice of our Leader, 
saying, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world?" 0, how we ought to adore him in 
view of the fact that all he requires of us is unswerv- 
ing fidelity to truth, to souls, and to himself. Look at 
the world's heroes. What did Leonidas care for danger 
when, beneath the arrow-hurtled cloud of Thermopylae, 
he died to save his country ! What did Hannibal care 
for death when his armies hung like the tempests of 
heaven on the declivities of the Alps ! What did Alex- 
ander care for it when he leaped into the Granicus with 
the banner of Macedon waving over his head ! What 
did Cyrus care for it when he headed his legions at 
Thymbra, or fell like a thunder-bolt upon Babylon ! 
What did Napoleon care for it when fighting like a 
common soldier at Lodi and Areola ! What did our 
fathers care for it when waging the battles of freedom, 
to which they had pledged their lives, their fortunes, 
and their sacred honor ! What do men of the world 
to-day care for it in the pursuit of gold or the path- 
way of ambition ! 

And shall we, as chosen heralds of salvation, ap- 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 35 



pointed leaders of the sacramental host of God's elect, 
whose work and reward are so infinitely more certain 
and glorious, be timid and time-serving? Forbid it, 
ascended and triumphant Christ, who wast thyself 
made perfect through suffering, and whose glorified 
form, amid the radiations of divinity, yet bears the 
scars of wounds received in thine earthly conflict ! 

Think you that, as the gleam of the executioner's up- 
lifted weapon fell on him, John regretted his fidelity ? 
or that Moses, as from Pisgah he looked back over the 
rugged wilderness, regretted his ? or that the unnum- 
bered host of faithful ones who were flung by ruthless 
persecutors from Alpine summits, murdered amid the 
horrors of Saint Bartholomew, slain on the storied hills 
of Scotland, sunk beneath the nameless horrors of the 
Inquisition, or met death amid the darkness and deso- 
lation of heathendom, regretted theirs ? I tell you, 
nay ; nor shall ye. Nay, w T hen the death-hour comes — 
as come it will — when we shall stand on that unseen 
line that separates time from eternity, whence we may 
look back and see our pathway, through toils, tears, 
poverty, and, it may be, obloquy, because of our fidel- 
ity to him who " counted us faithful, putting us into 
the ministry:" then, as we tremble for a moment be- 
tween two worlds, the gathering death-gloom shall be 
dissipated by the outgleamings from the beyond ; and 
we shall hear the voice of him whom John heralded 
and baptized, his Lord and ours, saying, "Well done, 
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of 
thy Lord." And around the sepulchres where our 



36 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



dust shall sleep a weeping church shall gather and 
sing, while angels echo back the song, " Blessed are 
the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth : yea, 
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, 
and their works do follow them." 

I can not close this discussion without calling your 
attention to one reflection which it suggests, viz., that 
the enemies of Christianity may silence some of its 
heralds, but they can not hinder its progress. 

It was not hindered by the murder of this first her- 
ald. Nay, in place of this one twelve soon arose ; and 
to these, seventy others were soon added ; and shortly 
after, the number became an hundred and twenty, then 
five hundred ; and at Pentecost three thousand bowed 
to Christ, and additions were made daily to the church ; 
and when driven out of Jerusalem by persecution, they 
" went everywhere preaching the word;" and such was 
their success, that the number of converts during one 
century is believed to have reached five hundred thou- 
sand. The blood of martyrs ever since has been the 
seed from which Christianity has gathered her harvests 
of souls. She has triumphed, she shall triumph ; for 
" the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." Her foes may 
be successful in single battles, but they shall be con- 
quered in the war. The waves of her heaven-born in- 
fluence, which have already dashed against the Pyra- 
mids, foamed around the Acropolis and Coliseum, flowed 
past the Pillars of Hercules, and mingled with the ebb 
of the north and the flow of the south, shall yet, " like 
a sea of glory, flow from pole to pole." 



THE HERALD PREACHER. 37 



Triumphantly, therefore, do to say to her foes 

" Can ye drive young spring from the blossomed earth, 
The earthquake still in its awful birth ? 
"Will the hands on time's dial, backward flee, 
Or the pulse of the universe pause for thee ? 
The shaken mountains, the flowers that blow, 
That pulse of the universe answers — Xo. 

11 Can ye burn a truth in the martyr's fire ? 
Or chain a thought in a dungeon dire ? 
Or stay the soul as it soars away, 
In glorious life, from its mouldering clay ? 
The truth that liveth, the thoughts that go, 
The spirit ascending, all answer — Xo. 

" error, despots, your doom they speak, 
For God is mighty as ye are weak ; 
Tour night and your winter from earth must roll ; 
Your chains must melt from the limb and the soul. 
Ye have brought us wrong, ye have brought us woe ; 
Shall ye triumph for ever ? AVe answer — Xo. 

11 Ye have builded your altars, with gems impearled, 
On the broken heart of a ruined world ; 
Ye have buried its martyrs in desert graves, 
Ye have made its children a race of slaves. 
O'er the future age shall the ruin go ? 
"We gather against ye, and answer — Xo. 

" Ye laugh in scorn from your shrines and towel's, 
But weak are ye, for the truth is ours ; 
In arms, in pride, in gold ye move, 
But we are stronger, our strength is love. 
Slay truth and love, with the curse and the blow ? 
The beautiful heavens, they answer — Xo. 



88 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



" The winter night of the world is past; 
The gospel's day is shining at last ; 
The vail is rent from the soul's clear eyes, 
And prophets, and heroes, and martyrs arise ; 
Their words and their deeds like the thunders go: 
Can ye stifle their voices ? They answer — No /" 



II. 



It Sensual Ulan. 



HEROD, 

C lj t % c it s u a I 1SU n . 



u Xow conscience wakes despair 
That slumbered ; -wakes the hitter memory 
Of what he was, what is, and what mnst he 
Worse ; if worse deeds, worse sufferings must ensue." — Milto>~. 



Ax emiDent British scholar has observed of the 
Bible. '''This glorious book of our God, like his work 
of nature, abounds with almost endless variety. The 
amount, however, of the biographical element is very re- 
markable, and it not only demands special attention, but 
will be found to embrace within its development a large 
proportion of the whole circle of truth. " Two things 
will be found true in relation to this department of 
Scripture, viz.. the biographies are very brief, mere out- 
lines, and they include those of bad as well as those of 
good men. The life of one who may unhesitatingly be 
classed among the former now claims our attention. 

In the Bible records we read of three Herods. The 
first is Herod the Great — the last king of the Jews. He 
^vas the second son of Antipater. the Idumean. When 
only fifteen years of age. his father was appointed Pro- 
curator of Judea. and he himself was elevated to the 
governorship of Galilee. In the civil war which then 



42 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



raged between the Caesarean and republican parties, 
Herod was at first friendly to Cassius, but subse- 
quently to Mark Antony, from whom he obtained the 
crown of Judea. He arose to great power in his regal 
position, but employed his vast influence and splendid 
talents in the most oppressive manner. He, without 
cause, murdered his beautiful wife, who was the last 
of the Maccabees, a family in which there had been 
one thousand high priests in succession. She was the 
last of the long and splendid line of Asmonean princes, 
with whose termination in her disappeared the last ves- 
tige of native royalty among the Jews, the stream of 
their national glory, like the mysteriously disappearing 
rivers of the East, vanishing for ever beneath the clod 
which covered Mariamne's grave. It was this Herod 
who, to gain favor with the Jews, rebuilt the temple. 
In the thirty-third year of his reign our Saviour was 
born. To this Herod the Wise Men came. He it w T as 
who strove to possess himself of Christ, and who issued 
the decree that all the male children under two years 
of age who were found in Bethlehem should be slain. 
In his sixty-eighth year, tortured by a guilty conscience, 
enfeebled by a broken constitution, surrounded by dire- 
ful conspiracies, attacked by a deadly disease, he died 
a horrible death ; and went to his grave amid the re- 
joicings of the people whom he had oppressed. 

The second person of this name mentioned in the 
Scriptures is Herod Agrippa, a grandson of Herod the 
Great, who was born three years before Christ. He 
became emperor of Judea, in connection with the king- 



THE SENSUAL MAN. 43 



t 'i of Chalcis, and rose to the position of one of the 
y latest princes in all the East. His government gave 
V iversal satisfaction to the nation, which had so lately 
c iperienced the evils of his grandfather's despotic reign. 
This is the Herod who, to please the Jews, put to death 
the Apostle James, who cast Peter into prison, and 
whose strange death is recorded in the twelfth chapter 
of Acts. It occurred in Cesarea, where games were 
being performed in honor of Claudius, and the people 
of Tyre and Sidon had come to sue with him for peace. 
On the morning of the chosen day, while the heavens 
were glowing with the luster of the orient, and nature 
in gladness smiling back a response, he appeared before 
them seated upon a throne; and Josephus says, "He 
had on a garment made wholly of silver, which, as 
the sun's rays illuminated it, shone so surpassingly re- 
splendent that it spread a terror over those who looked 
upon him.' 7 Proudly he arose and pronounced an ora- 
tion, the effect of which was overwhelming. The vast 
crowd was swayed to and fro with tumultuous excite- 
ment, like a wild sea lashed into surges by the breath 
of the storm-king, and shouted, "It is the voice of a 
god, and not of a man." Majestic in his supreme self- 
ishness, the wicked monarch greedily received this blas- 
phemous adulation. In his own conceit lie stood upon a 
mountain-peak of glory; but his footing was the treach- 
erous crust which covered a volcano. For in that mo- 
ment, doubtless the proudest of his life, a terrible dis- 
ease, a messenger from God struck him, and from that 
scene of royal magnificence he was carried to his palace, 



44 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



where, after five days of inexpressible suffering, eaten 
by worms, he expired, closing a reign of only seven 
years. It may interest you to know that the Agrippa 
before whom Paul preached was the son of this man. 

Between these two, Herod Antipas, to whom I shall 
call your special attention, lived. He was the son of 
Herod the Great, and is called Tetrarch of Galilee. 
His brother Archelaus reigned over Judea, and bore 
the royal title of his father. In order to supplant him, 
Antipas interceded at Rome ; but his covetousness met 
a deserved rebuke in Caesar's confirmation of his father's 
will. On his way to the eternal city an event occurred 
which gave coloring to all his after life. He met and 
became enamored with Herodias, the wife of his half- 
brother Philip, a woman who has justly been called the 
Jezebel of the New Testament. She had married her 
own uncle, and Salome, the famous dancing girl, was 
their daughter. Reciprocating Herod's criminal pas- 
sion, and, in defiance of law and morality, she aban- 
doned her husband and married the Tetrarch. The 
sun of Herod's fair fame, whose brightness was already 
dimmed by fraternal envy, sank in hopeless gloom at 
the perpetration of this shameless public wickedness. 
His own excellent but dishonored wife, the daughter of 
an Arabian prince, left Galilee in disgust and returned 
to her father's court. Such was the elevated position 
of this guilty pair, such the pomp and influence of their 
surroundings, that only one man was found who dared 
to rebuke them, and that was the brave and fearless 
John the Baptist. In the name of his God he rebuked 



THE SENSUAL MAN. 45 



this guilty man and woman, the influence of whose ex- 
ample was so corrupting and disastrous ; for society is 
never so much injured by malign influences existing 
among lower classes and working upward, as by cor- 
ruption in high places which inevitably works down- 
ward. By doing this he incurred the wrath of Herod, 
who had before this feared his power with the people : 
and, what was more fearful, he drew upon himself the 
bitter hatred of Herodias, who in the dark depths of 
her guilty soul swore revenge on the virtuous denouncer 
of her crime. By Herod's order John was thrown into 
prison, and confined there during a long period, for it 
would seem that no opportunity occurred in which ma- 
licious vengeance dared to enforce its gratification. 

The desired opportunity at length arrives. It is 
Herod's birth-day, and grand festivities have been or- 
dered for its celebration. The metropolitan Tiberius is 
crowded with gay throngs in holiday attire. A gor- 
geous banquet is served in a magnificent hall of the 
royal palace. The lords, in their robes of state ; the 
high captains, in their military uniforms : the elite of 
the nobility are there. Galilean beauty and fashion are 
there. Rich wine, from golden goblets, freely quaffed, 
has excited the guests to wild merriment. Boisterous 
hilarity resounds along the bannered walls. It is Bel- 
shazzar's feast repeated. But all is hushed as a 
strain of music bursts upon the ear, and the attention 
of the crowd is fixed upon the fair form of a beautiful 
girl who comes tripping into the hall, and begins to 
dance. The music grows quicker, wilder. Her grace- 



46 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



ful but wanton movements become swiftev and swifter. 
The excitement deepens. Every pulse be^ts fast. But 
one man of all that admiring throng applauds the loud- 
est. It is Herod. Intoxicated, not only with wine 
but with delight, he is " greatly pleased," and his 
passion-full eyes gleam like consuming flames, while 
he cries aloud with an oath, " Ask what thou wilt, and 
I will give it thee, to the half of my kingdom." The 
dancer pauses and returns his voluptuous gaze. She 
is prepared with the request, because her mother, who 
has laid this plot to ensnare Herod into the gratifica- 
tion of her revenge, has previously instructed her, and 
she says — 0, what a request to fall from the lips of a 
girl ! — " Give me here the head of John the Baptist in 
a charger." Look at Herod now. A change has come 
over him, for he sees the plot, and sorrow is depicted 
on his face; but he yields. The command is given, 
and in a brief period the executioner returns bearing 
in his hands the gory charger with its ghastly contents, 
and delivers it to the now trembling damsel, who carries 
it to her mother. The imagined feelings of Salome, as 
she carries that fearful burden, and gives it to Herodias, 
have been most vividly described by Miss Lucy Hooper, 
one of our own sweetest poets, in the following lines 

" Mother! I bring thy gift : 
Take from my hand the dreadful boon — I pray, 
Take it ; the still, pale sorrow of the face 
Hath left upon my soul its living trace, 

Never to pass away. 
Since from these lips, the word of idle breath, 
Blanched that calm face — Oh ! mother, this is death ! 



THE SENSUAL MAN. 47 



" What is that I see 
From all the pure and settled features gleaming ? 
Reproach ! reproach ! my dreams are strange and wild. 
Mother ! hadst thou no pity on thy child ? 

See, a celestial smile seems softly beaming 
On the hushed lips ; my mother, canst thou brook 
Longer upon thy victim's face to look ? 

" Alas ! at yester morn 
My heart was light, and to the viol's sound 
I gayly danced, while crowned with summer flowers ; 
And swiftly by me sped the flying hours ; 

And all was joy around — 
Not death. 0, mother ! could I say thee nay ? 
Take from thy daughter's hand thy boon away. 

" Take it ; my heart is sad, 
And the pure forehead hath an icy chill. 
I dare not touch it, for avenging Heaven 
Hath shuddering visions to my fancy given ; 

And the pale face appals me, cold and still, 
With the closed lips. Oh ! tell me, could I know 
That the pale features of the dead were so ? 

" I may not turn away 
From the charmed brow ; and I have heard his name 
Even as a prophet, by his people spoken ; 
And that high brow in death bears seal and token 

Of one whose words were flame. 
Oh ! holy teacher, couldst thou rise and live, 
Would not those hushed lips whisper c I forgive ?' 

" Away with lute and harp — 
With the glad heart for ever, and the dance ! 
Never again shall timbrel sound for me. 
Oh, fearful mother ! I have brought to thee 

The silent death, with his rebuking glance, 
And the crushed heart of one to whom are given 
Wild dreams of judgment and offended Heaven !" 



48 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



The nearest approximation to this dastardly murder 
I have found in history is that which a Roman histo- 
rian records of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, who, to 
satiate her vengeance on Lollia Paulina, a hated rival, 
ordered an officer to bring to her Lollia' s head in a 
dish. It was brought ; and the historian says that 
Agrippina closely examined it, and exulted * ever this 
horrid gratification of her revenge. 

Thus John and Herod met their crisis-hour. The 
headless body of the former was consigned by his dis- 
ciples to its humble resting-place; the carousal of the. 
latter was interrupted only for a few moments, and the 
banqueting proceeded as if nothing had transpired. 
But unseen by the sensual eyes of his guests, around 
that proud form gathered clouds surcharged with wrath. 
Unheard amid their hilarious mirth, conscience within 
him muttered the echoed thunders of violated moral 
law. Unknown to them, his guilty imagination pictured 
awful portents of trouble in the future. But ' ' judgment 
is not often executed speedily," and time rolls on. 

The next incident recorded of this man is in connec- 
tion with the history of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
transpired probably within the last week of our Sav- 
iour's life. Certain Pharisees, pretending friendship, 
came to him with this warning: "Get thee out and 
depart, for Herod will kill thee.* ? Our Lord was emi- 
nently popular among the masses of the people ; and 
his position and influence were living condemnations 
of the execution of John by the Tetrarch, who had de- 
sired on this account to put him to death, but durst not, 



THE SENSUAL MAX. 49 



" for he feared the people/' Cunningly, therefore, he de- 
vised this method to get rid of the Saviour and sent 
these men to him. Reflect upon -the reply Jesus made 
to these messengers, for it throws a vivid light upon 
Herod's character. With an air of unwonted majesty, 
he said : u Go, tell ye that fox, Behold, I cast out devils 
and do cures to-day, and to-morrow ; and the third clay 
I shall be perfected/" 7 The Tetrarch sent no more mes- 
sages to the God-man. 

There is hut one reference after this to him in our 
Scriptures, and that is found in connection with the 
trial of Christ. The event referred to transpired on 
the morning of the day on which the Redeemer was 
nailed to the cross for our redemption — that day around 
which gathers an interest inexpressibly sublime, and 
which shall be remembered amid the grandeurs of eter- 
nity, when all other days shall be forgotten. On the 
previous night he had been apprehended in Gethsem- 
ane and taken, first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, and then 
to Pilate, who, having ascertained that he was from 
Galilee, sent him to Herod, who happened then to be 
at Jerusalem. Look now at the word-picture which 
Luke has drawn of that first and last meeting of these 
two, whose moral natures were such perfect antagon- 
isms. " When Herod saw Jesus he was exceedingly 
glad ; for he was desirous to see him for a long time ; 
because he had heard many things of hiin, and hoped to 
have seen some miracle wrought bv him. Then he 
questioned him in many words, but Jesus answered 
him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes vehern- 



50 KEPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



ently accused him * and Herod with his men of war set 
him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a 
gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate. 7; What a 
scene is here exhibited ! How sharply defined its char- 
acter ! how intense its action ! I dare not attempt to 
touch it with my poor pencil ; for surely not even a 
master's skill could deepen its coloring, or add to its 
interest. Let it stand then just as it is before your 
mental vision, in its divine simplicity and subduing 
pathos. Thus Herod's history is intertwined with that 
of the world's Redeemer. Thus he shamefully treated 
the Son of God. The record adds, that on that same 
clay Herod and Pilate, who had before been enemies, 
united now in their opposition to Jesus, became friends. 
Josephus informs u3, that under the subsequent reign 
of Caius, Herod was charged with treason, fell into 
disgrace, was stripped of his possessions, banished to 
Lyons, and finally into Spain, where he died, a disap- 
pointed, wretched, miserable man. 

Through these recorded events let us now look for 
the real character of this man, who put to death, under 
such outrageous circumstances, the first preacher of the 
new dispensation ; who reigned over Galilee during the 
incarnation of our Lord ; the man before w r hose bar he 
was brought as a criminal, and by whose order he was 
mockingly arrayed in the cast-off robes of royalty, 
scourged, set at nought and derided. What was his 
real character ? 

It has been truly observed, that although in these 
events c: we catch but glimpses of him, still they are 



THE SENSUAL MAN. 51 



sufficient to betray certain prominent and unmistaka- 
ble lineaments. He is not perhaps to be styled a mon- 
ster of wickedness, nor was his temper so ferocious and 
stern as that of his great father. He appears rather to 
have been of an easy and luxurious disposition, lacking 
in moral courage and energy ; yet, when aroused by the 
solicitations of voluptuousness or ambition, capable of 
great enterprises and cruel deeds. He was not with- 
out intellectual sharpness, and some moral sense ; but, 
on the whole, he stands as a full illustration of that 
class of men whose motives are of the flesh and of the 
world; who, jarred it may be for a moment by some 
serious thought, or flushed by better feelings, still live 
as creatures of passion, beings of an hour, and, regard- 
less of conscience and the verities of religion, swing at 
impulse." As a whole, he stands before us as a repre- 
sentative of sensualists — men with strong animal na- 
tures, uncurbed passions, who find their highest enjoy- 
ment in the low realm of sense, and hesitate at nothing 
which secures them sensual gratification. Hence, you 
see him, deaf to the voice of morality, violate the most 
sacred relations of life, mocking at the highest solemni- 
ties, and in his re vermes "mingling wine and blood." 
You see him, with all the refinement of education, dig- 
nity of position, grace of person, and splendid surround- 
ings, wearing "the rich robes of an Epicurean, over red 
hands and a voluptuous heart/*' Moreover, in his creed 
he was a Sadducee, recognizing no life beyond the grave, 
no good higher than earthly weal. Emphatically he was 
not only a bad man, but a weak one. 



52 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



u many evils he had clone." Yea, doubtless, there is 
unrecorded in the book of history, but recorded in the 
book of judgment, a long, black catalogue of his crimes. 
And do you wonder at it ? You need not, you will 
not, when you remember that sensualism was his lead- 
ing characteristic. 

For, rest assured, that the predominance of no other 
vice is so detrimental to a man's entire nature as this. 
It undermines the whole physical, intellectual and moral 
organization, as the insects of the tropics devour the 
substance of whatever they penetrate, leaving merely 
a specious shell, which crumbles into dust at the first 
rude blow. It weakens every power, pollutes every 
feeling, gives supremacy to the lowest range of our 
susceptibilities and capabilities, blunts the perceptions, 
makes evil seem good, diverts from their true direction 
every current of our natures, deafens the ear to every 
call of earth and heaven to beneficent endeavor, blinds 
the eye to the immortal beauty of innocence and holi- 
ness, benumbs the conscience, leads men to sneer at 
purity and leer in the very face of virtue, and makes 
them content to live merely in the degraded world of 
sense, strangers to the grand and holy realm of true 
existence. In a word, it brutalizes humanity, entails 
indescribable evils on the race, and damns men in both 
worlds. It makes their influence terribly pernicious. 
The character and influence of the complete sensualist 
have thus been described by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher 
in the peculiar style of his powerful pen: u He lives 
among men hell's embassador with full credentials ; nor 



THE SENSUAL MAN. 53 



can we conceive of the need of any other fiend to per- 
fect the works of darkness while he carries his body 
among us, stuffed with every pestilent dreg of corrup- 
tion. The heart of every virtuous young man should 
loathe him. If he speaks, you should as soon hear a 
wolf bark. Gather around you the venomous snake, 
the foetid vulture, the prowling hyena, and their com- 
pany would be an honor to you above his ; for they, at 
least, remain true to their own natures, while he has 
gone out of his, that he may become more vile than it 
is possible for a mere animal to be." 

Three reflections are suggested by these historic facts 
and this character. 

1. Great positions can not make great men. 

Herod's was truly a great position. Politically, it 
was second only to that of the imperial Caesar. De- 
scended from one of the greatest monarchs of the East, 
he was a king in his , own right, and, therefore, great 
honor was his, great wealth, authority and influence 
were his. Thus much position did for him ; what did 
it do for that which was more important than all these 
— his manhood? Did it make it great? Nay, it did 
not, it could not. You shall search his record in vain 
to find any greatness, except great moral weakness, im- 
morality, and crime, for which his sensualism prepared 
him, and into which it led him. Thus it ever will be 
with mere positions, and yet how men toil*and tug to 
gain them. ' They seem to think that if they can only 
secure a foothold upon such eminences, their highest 
good will be secured. They forget that, although you 



54 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



take an owl out of his dark retreat, and place him upon 
the loftiest height, and surround him ATitli the blaze of 
noon-day, his position only makes him dizzy and blind. 
He is an owl still, with his big, gray eyes, and empty 
head ; the change of position does not make an eagle 
of him. 

The elevation that Herod occupied only made his 
weaknesses and crimes more conspicuous. This ? high 
places always do for such men. I doubt not that 
there were times when, as the Tetrarch looked upon 
John, with his coat of camel's hair and leathern girdle, 
in his poverty and destitution, possessed of the elements 
of a lofty manhood, intelligence, virtue, and religion, 
he felt in his inmost soul that the royalty of that 
humble man was infinitely superior to his own. "Would 
to God that our young men could see that there is 
nothing on earth so regal as a true, pure manhood — 
that nothing is so really great ; that they would despise 
the miserable scramble after office that disgraces our 
country, and aim, not at becoming position-occupiers, 
mere office-holders, but cultivated, holy men, an attain- 
ment w r hich is not dependent on the accidents of 
society, but upon themselves, their own energetic in- 
dustry, persevering endeavor, and the promised blessing 
of God. 

2. Circumstances can not make it right to do 
wrong. 

The record says that when the dancing girl asked 
for the head of John the Baptist, Herod " was sorry.' 7 
There were many reasons for this. He had felt the in- 



THE SENSUAL MAX. 55 



fluence of that holy man commanding his respect ; and 
Mark informs us that he had done many things in ac- 
cordance with the Preacher's dictates, and that he en- 
joyed great popularity with the people. Though a 
characteristic sensualist, Herod's conscience was not 
dead, and it checked him from committing a deliberate 
crime as the price of a few moments' entertainment, 
and in order to gratify what he knew to be the ill- 
founded malice of his wife. Justice whispered that the 
object of his resentment was a righteous man, pity, 
that he was an helpless man, and even selfishness sug- 
gested the impolicy of a measure which might bring 
down upon him the indignation of his own subjects. 
Why, then, did he issue the fatal order ? The record 
says that although he was sorry, " nevertheless, for the 
oath' s sake J' he gave the command. But did that oath 
justify the act? Verily, not. Doubtless, he felt bound 
by his oath. But was he ? No, He ought not to have 
taken it, and when taken, such an oath could not bind 
him to do a palpable and flagrant wrong ; for he was pre- 
viously bound by the prior obligations of duty to soci- 
ety and to God not to do it : and no act of his, no single 
oath, nor ten thousand combined oaths, could possibly 
free him from those obligations. This "principle is of 
present and immensely practical importance : for, in 
numerous instances, similar oaths have been and are 
being taken, involving similar moral results, but they 
are not, they can not be binding, under what circum- 
stances soever of solemnity they may be taken, because 
they can not annihilate or ignore previous divinely- 



56 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



established obligations to do right. They ought not to 
have been taken ; but if they have been, they should 
be trampled under the feet of an intelligent and indig- 
nant manhood. 

The same principle applies to mere promises and 
resolutions. How many persons say, "We must do so 
and so, or not, as the case may be : go to this or that 
place, or not, because we have promised." This was 
Herod's reasoning; but it is false. If that which you 
have promised to do is morally wrong, then your prom- 
ise ought not to have been given ; but if it has been 
given, it can not cancel your prior obligation to do 
right. This latter law is binding ; the former, there- 
fore, is not. 

Observe another influential circumstance in this con- 
nection, which seems to have determined Herod's action, 
even if there was any hesitancy in his mind with re- 
gard to the binding character of his oath. The record 
says, that although he was sorry, "nevertheless, for the 
oath's sake, and them which sat vnth him at meat" 
he issued the requested order. The fair inference from 
this is, that he was afraid of his reputation for firmness 
and decision of character among his guests ; that he 
feared lest he might betray to them weakness of pur- 
pose, and lack of courage to fulfill his own promise. 
Thus his moral constitution, enfeebled by sensuality, 
yielded to the temptation to commit obvious wicked- 
ness, because it had not courage to brave a corrupt pub- 
lic sentiment ; and foolishly endeavored to persuade it- 
self that circumstances justified it. 



THE SENSUAL MAN. 57 



Now, this very thing is the cause of the downfall of 
many a noble young man. He finds himself in a circle 
of corrupt companions, and soon becomes fearful of 
their sneers, afraid of being called by them mean and 
cowardly ; and gradually yields to this influence, until, 
in opposition to the reproaches of his conscience and 
the dictates of his better judgment, he finds himself do- 
ing what crimsons his cheek in moments of reflection, 
and plants thorns in his night-pillow. His own heart 
tells him that he is a coward, in not daring to brave the 
corrupt influence of those who i { set with him at meat.' 7 
And do you know that this very thing is the secret of 
what are called u laws of honor," the foundation of 
the practice of dueling ? Look at society where that 
fearful custom is in vogue, and you will see that it ex- 
ists because a barbarous public sentiment demands it ; 
because if a man will not fight he is branded as a pol- 
troon and a coward, banished from certain circles where 
he has lost caste ; and because men have not the moral 
courage to brave these social consequences, that horrid 
code, which combines unmanly meanness, daring im- 
piety, fiendish malignity ; and which has robbed the 
country of some of her noblest citizens, and over- 
whelmed untimely widows and orphans with inexpress- 
ible grief, is perpetuated. To return to my point, I 
affirm, in view of this discussion, with increased em- 
phasis, that no circumstances, neither oaths nor public 
opinion, can make it right to do wrong ! 

3. Although a man may violate his conscience, 

3* 



58 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



and stifle it for a time, still, sooner or later, it will 
rack his soul with remorse. 

The case before us clearly illustrates this. Review 
it once more. Herod has had John slain. He is 
troubled no more with his faithful rebukes. His pride 
is stung no longer with his public denunciations, for 
the lips that uttered them are silent in death. The 
guilty Herodias has lavished her passionate thanks 
upon him for the deed. Fawning courtiers have ap- 
plauded his fidelity to his oath, and his firmness in ful- 
filling his promise. Sometimes he has almost argued 
himself into the belief that the fearful deed was, after 
all, justifiable under the circumstances. Apparently, 
his temporary regret was drowned in the revelry by 
which it was surrounded. But how was it with his 
conscience ? Ah ! a few words reveal a volume in re- 
gard to it. They tell us that, months afterwards, when 
the fame of Jesus reached Herod amid the splendors 
of his court, he exclaimed, in wild terror, " This is 
John ; he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty 
works do show forth themselves in him." Those few 
words lay bare the secret of his soul. See how, amid 
all his sensualism, that direful deed is retained by his 
memory, and his benumbed conscience finally aroused 
itself, despite his professed denial of the resurrection 
of the dead. Like a weird specter it has haunted his 
dreams, and now, upon receiving this intelligence, it 
starts forth in vivid form, searing the eyeballs of his 
guilty imagination, and he shrieks, "This is John." 
Ah! to him now " every beam in the ceilings of his 



THE SENSUAL MAN. 59 



gorgeous palace seems to utter a groan and the pictured 
walls to break out with ghastly sweat" 

The Greeks and Romans believed that the terror 
resident in the mind after crime was the direct produc- 
tion of a malignant being, who was ever present with 
the criminal ; and surely the embodiment of an accus- 
ing conscience would present a livid form, glowing with 
the fire of evil power within, and wrapped about with 
somber shadows as with a garment. 

Friends, conscience is an integral part of our moral 
constitution : and however wrongly educated, it is al- 
ways more or less true to the high purposes of its crea- 
tion. Hence every man has some faith in immortality. 

All history confirms the truth of the poet's declara- 
tion, 

" Conscience, tremendous conscience, in his fits 
Of inspiration — whensoe'er it came — 
Rose like a ghost, inflicting fear of death 
On those who feared not death in fiercest battle, 
And mocked them in their martyrdoms of torment ; 
That secret, swift, and silent messenger 
Broke on them in then loneiy hours : in sleep, 
In sickness : haunting them with dire suspicions 
Of something in themselves that would not die ; 
Of an existence elsewhere, and hereafter, 
Of which tradition was not wholly silent, 
Tet spake not out ; its dreary oracles 
Confounded superstition to conceive, 
And baffled skepticism to reject. 
TVhat fear of death is like the fear beyond it ?" 

After the commission of crime and a life of sensual- 
ity, men may pretend to laugh at thoughts of the 



60 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



great hereafter. They have sinned with impunity. 
Civil lavf has not condemned them : public opinion 
may not have reproached them. They have flourished 
like green bay trees. But sooner or later, their abused 
moral natures will writhe beneath their load of accu- 
mulated guilt. They will conjure up from the past, 
images of terror, and throw over wicked pleasures and 
ill-gotten possessions lurid gleams bright as hot rays 
from a burning hell. Conscience will cause ghostly 
forms of woe to rise up in the awful future and beck- 
on them onward, and hideous memories from the 
past to push them forward. It will make despair 
mock them, sleep fly from them in terror, agony 
press her bitter cup to their lips, and remorse strike 
her sharpened teeth % into the very center of their 
being. 

Remember this, ye who glory in your shame — who 
violate with impious daring the laws of God and man ! 
Remember that should these terrible consequences not 
overtake you in the present life, you may rest assured, 
in the words of another, that when Time, having held 
in trust for eternity the bliss and bitterness of earth, 
shall render up his dreadful seal ; when invading ruin 
shall go abroad on this theater of crime; when the 
grave, the sepulchre, the sea, the desert, amid the con- 
vulsions of expiring nature, shall yield up their dead ; 
when earth, air. fire, and ocean shall blend their ener- 
gies for the final struggle, and the dash of ruined sys- 
tems shall burst on the ear of surrounding solitudes, 
as the funeral dirge of a dying world ; then, then 



THE SENSUAL MAX. 61 



ye shall stand before the judgment throne of immacu- 
late purity, and hear from the lips of him whom Herod 
mocked, and ye despise, the irrevocable sentence- 
doom — "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels." 



III. 



u 



t iiajritWifo Ht&ti* 



PETER. 



* In the hour of trial, Jesus pray for me, 
Lest by base denial I dishonor thee. 
"When thou seest me waver, with a look recall, 
Nor for fear or favor suffer me to fall. 

" With its vain allurements would this gay world charm, 
With its strong seductions strive to work me harm ? 
Bring to my remembrance sad Gethsemane, 
Or in sadder semblance cross-crowned Calvary/' — Mo>~tgo:mert, 



The distinctive peculiarities cf individuals have been 
made the subject of various classifications. There are 
two of these to which I will briefly advert, which if not 
of the highest order are certainly very expressive. If 
you observe closely the common language of men, you 
will discover that at times they classify each other's 
predominating characteristics according to the animals. 
Hence you hear of apish men, mere imitators: foxy 
men, cunning and deceitful : wolfish men, insatiable in 
their greed : tiger-like men, fierce and cruel ; and lion- 
hearted men, bold and fearless. 

The other classification to which I refer is according 
to the metals. Adopting this, and looking over society, 
you may see iron men, strong and useful ; steel men, 
springy and elastic ; mercurial men, hasty and impetu- 



66 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



ous; silver men, brightly polished ; golden men, pure 
and true ; and then you find others, of whom even 
charity itself must confess that they have by far too 
much brass in their composition. 

But whatever classification we may adopt, it still 
remains true that, in its essential features, as truly as 
in its original faculties, human nature is evermore the 
same. The men of past centuries are the men of to- 
day, with only what difference circumstances and cul- 
ture have wrought. Indeed, history could not teach 
us by example, unless the groundwork of character 
were in all ages the same. And when we comprehend 
this, history is no longer an obsolete legend, or an 
amusing story, but a grand mirror revealing the action 
of our own passions, the conflicts of our own virtues 
and vices, and sometimes the reflections of our own 
interior life, the outworkings of its secret impulses and 
half-formed purposes. Especially is this true of gospel 
history. For while, in general history, we chiefly see 
human nature amid institutions and forms which have 
ceased to exist, in this we see it in contact with Chris- 
tianity operating in Palestine then, as among ourselves 
now. You perceive, therefore, that not only is the 
groundwork of character the same now as then, but the 
great operating agency is the same, and we shall find 
in our investigations that these men of the first century 
are in their relations to the gospel true representatives 
of the men of the nineteenth century. As we have 
seen that there are now men of whom Herod and John 
the Baptist are types, so we shall see that there are 



THE IMPULSIVE MAX. 67 



not a few of whom Peter — the subject of this lecture — 
is the true representative. 

Reflect for a moment at the outset on the positional 
eminence his name holds in the world at the present 
time, although eighteen hundred years have elapsed 
since his decease. The greatest building on earth. 
greatest in the scope of its architecture, the extent of 
its capacity, the wealth of its decorations, upon which 
the highest art has exhausted its energies, now bears his 
name; it is called "St. Peter's Cathedral." The very 
throne of the Caesars has been displaced by what is 
termed ••'the Chair of St. Peter." The proud column 
which was erected to commemorate the triumphs of the 
imperial Trajan, is known in modern Rome only as " the 
Pillar of St. Peter." More than this. The Romish 
church, with its millions of adherents, claim him as their 
foundation. And wherever a scriptural Christianity is 
known, his name is honored and revered. Let us go 
back over the pathway of centuries, and look for the 
origin of this man, with the present extent and nature 
of whose fame that of Csesar or Alexander seems limited 
indeed, and briefly trace the outline facts of his life. 

Thus retrogressing, we arrive at the memorable sea 
of Galilee. Near to its northern shore is a small town 
called Bethsaida. This is his birth-place. Look around 
and you see a little village occupied chiefly by fisher- 
men. The fishermen of Galilee were generally rude, 
fighting, swearing men. and there is no reason to be- 
lieve that Peter was better than his companions. The 
name of only one of his parents is known. The time 



68 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



of his birth is unknown ; but it is supposed to have been 
at about the same period as that of our Lord. The 
name of only one other member of the family is given 
us — that of Andrew, a younger brother. At this pe- 
riod Peter is in the fresh bloom of manhood. He has 
done what every young man ought to do — married, 
and settled down in an honest occupation. Tradition 
describes him as tall, strong-limbed, high-browed, with 
piercing, black, restless eyes, slightly aquiline nose, 
flexible lips, manly in his bearing and rapid in action. 
Think, now, of this fisherman quietly pursuing his 
humble occupation on the clear waters of his native 
lake. He is uneducated and unambitious. Ah ! amid 
his thoughtful hours have any foretokens of the great- 
ness of the change which shall come over him, the lofti- 
ness of the destiny that awaits him, visited the day or 
night dreams of this fisherman ? Has there been a 
growing disquietude, in his once peaceful soul, with his 
present occupation, and a deepening impression of a 
higher destiny, somehow awaiting him in the future, 
like the vague, uncertain sensations w^hich crowd a 
sleeper's mind, when the rays of the rising sun first 
fall upon his unconscious lids ? See what occurs. His 
brother Andrew goes southward — hears John the Bap- 
tist preach — is converted — is present at the baptism of 
Christ — hears John proclaim him to be the Messiah — 
with another follows Jesus, and asks, " Rabbi, where 
dwellest thou V The kind answer is, " Come and see ;" 
they go and abide with him a day. Then the happy 
Andrew hastens back to Bethsaida. his soul filled with 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 69 



the rapture of a converses first love — finds bis brother 
Simon, and with eyes glistening with joyful tears he 
exclaims, "We have found the Christ." Grand intel- 
ligence is this to Simon's Jewish ears and heart ! And 
beautiful is the sight, as the younger brother, taking 
the elder by the arm, leads him to Jesus ! And aston- 
ished is the wondering Simon, as the Messiah looks 
kindly upon him, and says, " Thou art Simon, the son 
of Jonah; thou shalt be called Cephas," which is a 
Syriac word signifying "a stone:" the Greek of which 
is "ITerpaf," the English, "Peter." We are now at 
the crisis period of this man's history. He not only 
has a new name, but he feels within him new emotions, 
new desires, new hopes, the fresh-born struggles of a 
new life. He returns to Bethsaida ; but the charms of 
his native home, lake, and business, are gone. His ex- 
panded soul overleaps these barriers, and stretches forth 
toward a higher sphere. He expects daily to be sum- 
moned by the Messiah to the grand work of deliver- 
ing Israel ; but the summons does not come, and reluc- 
tantly he returns to his old occupation. This is in the 
thirtieth year of the Christian era. At the end of the 
year, the brothers, as usual, are fishing. As they are 
about to cast their nets into the lake, they behold, to 
their surprise, Jesus standing upon the shore, and hear 
him say, " Polio w me, and I will make you fishers of 
men." They drop their nets, and, though dependent 
for their subsistence on their daily toil, leave them in- 
stantly to obey the high behest, and follow him, the 
spiritual nature of whose sublime work they do not yet 



70 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



comprehend. Remember, Christ's home was at Caper- 
naum, the other side of the lake. Thither Peter re- 
moved with his family, and became his constant and 
faithful attendant. 

Let us now link together more closely the chain of 
succeeding events in Peter's history. 

The next occurrence of interest was when, a great 
crowd having collected on the lake shore to hear the 
Saviour preach, He entered Peter's boat, bade him 
push off from the shore, directing them to throw their 
nets on the "right side of the vessel." Peter was 
amazed at the success attending the Saviour's direc- 
tion, for they had previously " toiled all night and 
caught nothing." Here we have the first recorded de- 
velopment of his spiritual life, when he said, " Depart 
from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Then fol- 
low, in rapid succession, his connection with the final 
enrollment of the twelve Apostles ; the division of the 
twelve into couples, and their endowment with miracu- 
lous power ; after which Peter took his first preaching 
tour through Galilee. Immediately afterwards trans- 
pired, upon the lake and its shore, many grand scenes 
which our limits will not allow me to describe. These 
were succeeded by that memorable event which trans- 
pired near Cesarea Philippi, where Jesus asked, 
"Whom do men say that I am?" You remember 
the reply of the other disciples. You remember Pe- 
ter's noble response. You also remember the Saviour's 
response and benediction upon Peter. Then followed 
that series of events and teachings whereby Peter's 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 71 



Jewish hopes and prospects were blasted ; the trans- 
figuration on Mount Tabor, at which he was present 
with James and John ; the transaction of the tribute 
money ; the decision of the question of superiority, and 
the final journey of Christ to Jerusalem. 

In quick succession followed the final events. The 
institution of the supper; the solemn warning; the 
Grethsemane scene ; the cutting off of the servant's ear ; 
Peter's threefold denial of his Master ; his repentance ; 
his presence at the sepulchre on the resurrection morn- 
ing ; the last interview on the lake shore 3 when Christ 
thrice asked him, " Lovest thou me ?" the Pentecostal 
sermon ; his arraignment and subsequent imprisonment ; 
his release from prison ; his first sermon to the Gen- 
tiles; his rendering an account of his labors to the 
church at JerusalQin ; his denunciation of Ananias 
and Sapphira ; his mission to Samaria ; his visit to all 
the churches ; the writing of his general epistles ; his 
presence at the first council at Jerusalem ; his subse- 
quent journeys through Asia Minor ; and, finally, his 
death by martyrdom in a good old age. 

You have now before you the links in the chain of 
Peter's life drawn together as closely as possible, in 
connection with an idea at least of his personal appear- 
ance. You thus see the outside of this man's person 
and life. Bear with me now while I attempt to analyze 
and develop the elements and action of his interior life, 
by which analysis we shall discover three points of prac- 
tical interest. This is all I have time to do. Passing by 
all discussions as to his general relations to the king- 



72 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



dom, involved in the Romish controversy, I must look 
at him now only as a man, a representative man. 

1. We find in him a peculiar type of human char- 
acter. What are its elements ? 

Before I speak of these, I must beg you to remem- 
ber a fact which is rarely thought of in connection 
with Peter, viz., that, in the popular acceptation of the 
term, he was uneducated. He never had the advan- 
tage of school-learning, as Paul had. He was a rough, 
uncultured fisherman of Galilee, a stranger alike to the 
refining influence of literature and polite society. You 
must not be surprised therefore to find him sometimes 
rude in speech and rough in manners ; uncut, unpol- 
ished, but still a diamond. 

In him you see immense strength of impulse. 
This was the natural basic element, whose restless 
energy gave force, and sometimes impetuosity, to his ac- 
tions. Of these there are innumerable examples. His 
impulses were not only strong but quick. On this ac- 
count it was not safe for him to carry a sword. We 
never read of his having one but on a single occasion, 
and then he did mischief with it. It was when the 
band of soldiers came to apprehend Christ in the gar- 
den. It so happened that a servant of the high priest 
followed in their train. The poor fellow had done 
nothing ■ but Peter feeling, in the mightiness of his 
indignation, that he must do something, and not dar- 
ing to attack all the soldiers alone, made a desperate 
thrust, and cut off the man's ear. His impulses often 
led him into embarrassing positions, and yet they were 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 73 



the mighty force of his natural manhood. They made 
him an emphatic man. Even his sins had a terrible 
emphasis in them. There were crowded into the space 
of an hour, lies, curses, and oaths. He was of the same 
cast of character as Mirabeau, the terrible author of 
the horrors of the French Revolution. " The cometary 
powers" of the one, however, were harmonized and 
subdued by "the solar center" of the religion of Je- 
sus Christ. The other, destitute of its influence, tra- 
versed his ellipse of crime with an audacity startling 
even to the licentious age in which he lived, and rushed 
headlong into the ruin that he brought upon himself. 

Large and warm-heartedness was another charac- 
teristic. His life abounds with evidences of this. Per- 
haps its finest development is found in connection with 
the institution of the Supper — when, to teach them a 
lesson of humility, the Saviour washed the disciples' 
feet. Having in turn come to Peter, he stepped back, 
saying, " Thou shalt never wash my feet." Mildly 
Jesus answered, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part 
with me." " Oh, then," said Peter, " Lord, not my feet 
only, but my hands and my head." And how the great, 
though self-confident heart showed itself when in all sin- 
cerity he said, " Though all men forsake thee, yet will 
not I — I will go with thee to prison and to death!" 
Of what other disciple are tears recorded ? He never 
manifested the ambition of John and James, the cu- 
pidity of Judas, or the skepticism of Thomas ; but his 
whole life was permeated with a noble generosity and 
keen sympathy. 



74 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Moreover, he possessed the elements of constitu- 
tional firmness. At first you may doubt this. You 
remember evidences of cowardice and unmanly shrink- 
ing from danger, in his life. Those we shall presently 
examine. Suffice it now that Jesus called him Ce- 
phas or UsTpog — the man of rock — thus denoting the 
natural solidity and strength of his character. Must 
there not have been a fitness in this name ? But, you 
say, how could the wavering disciple be compared to a 
rock ? I beg you to remember that a rock will trem- 
ble — sway to and fro with almost every wind unless 
based upon a sufficient foundation. There are amid 
the Alps huge masses of granite balanced upon such 
slender natural bases that a man's hand can move them 7 
or the tread of a chamois dislodge, and hurl them thun- 
dering into the vale below. Asid until Peter rested 
upon the true foundation, he rocked and was dislodged. 
But the strength of his will was developed in the very 
greatness of its impulsive movements. When, how- 
ever, he settled down on the broad basis of an accepted 
atonement, a risen Christ and a deeper personal expe- 
rience of Christianity, he became firm as a mountain- 
bedded rock. To change the figure, he was like a 
lever, an instrument of great power, but useless with- 
out its fulcrum. His energy, therefore, toiled in the 
vanity of self-reliance until, in the finished work of 
Christ, he found his moral fulcrum, and resting on that 
point, with his energy for the long arm, and his impul- 
siveness for the power, he moved the world. This is a 
rare combination. You rarely find a man possessed of 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 75 



great strength of impulse, great capacity of heart, to- 
gether with rocky firmness. 

These qualified him to be the executive man of the 
Apostleship — the spokesman, the business leader. Such 
are always men of mark. You will find them in 
every congregation and community, the active, leading- 
spirits. Sometimes they run against snags, but they 
will run. Sometimes they say bad words, use harsh 
and ugly expressions, but they must talk. Sometimes 
they do very bad things, but they toill act. They are 
emphatically living men, and if a " living dog is better 
than a dead lion/ 5 then, one such man with all his faults 
is worth more to any enterprise than fifty inactive, 
stolid, over-cautious men, who never do wrong simply 
because they never do any thing ; who go through soci- 
ety with their hands behind their backs, managing so 
as never to come in contact with any person or thing ; 
who are mere ballast in the ship of church or state, 
who never stand at the helm or climb the masts when 
wild storms rage, or repel a boarding foe at the -risk of 
their lives. 

All that men of this fiery, impetuous, but strong 
stamp need, is just what Peter needed — a true founda- 
tion, a deeply experimental acquaintance with Christ. 
Only let them have this, let their impulses be directed, 
their hearts purified by supreme love to Christ; let 
their firmness be based on Christian principle, and they 
become the most useful men in church or state. They 
will bear the heaviest burdens, toil the longest and the 
hardest. They are the men who lead mighty enter- 



76 REPRESENTATIVE MEN". 



prises. They are the pioneers of the race. They give 
the world its greatest moral projections. They fight 
the battles of humanity and religion. Let us thank 
God then for this type of character ; these restless, 
impetuous, fiery Peters, who make things move where- 
ever 'they go ; who afford the motive power which puts 
in action the whole machinery of society ; who stir up 
the sluggish elements of community, sometimes by blus- 
ter, sometimes by argument, but stir them up some- 
how ; who, if they are always the first to speak, are 
also the first to act ; who, whatever their other faults, 
are outspoken, above-board men, despisers of low cun- 
ning or intrigue, who will say to your face what they 
have against you, and never stab you in the dark. 

2. We have in this history not only a type, but a 
trial of character. 

To develop this, let me picture to you a scene. It 
opens in an upper room at Jerusalem, where Jesus and 
his disciples have just concluded the institution of the 
Supper. Mournfully turning to them, he says, U A11 
ye shall be offended because of me this night." Sadly 
the other disciples bow their heads in silence, but Peter, 
starting up, says, " Though all men should be offended, 
yet will not L" Calmly Jesus says, " Before the cock 
crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." Excited to vehe- 
mence, this impulsive man, standing proudly erect, ex- 
claims, " If I should die with thee, yet will I not deny 
thee." Ah, Peter, Peter! before the morning's dawn 
thy proud head shall be bowed in shame, thy generous 
but self- trusting heart shall writhe in speechless agony ! 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 77 



Sadly the little band retire to Gethsemane. There, 
while Jesus prays, Peter falls asleep. Touching in- 
deed is the rebuke, "What! couldst thou not -watch 
with me one hour?*' The armed band come. Jesus 
is apprehended and taken to the house of the High 
Priest. Most of the disciples flee, but Peter follows 
afar off, and finally steals his way into the very hall 
where the trial is going on, and, to avoid recognition, 
mingles with the servants. But suspicious eyes are 
upon him, and a servant girl says, pointing to him, 
" This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." Quick as 
lightning he denies it. Suspicion is silenced, but not 
satisfied. By and by another says to him, ' i Surely, 
thou art one of them ;" and lo, with an oath he affirms, 
"I know not the man.' 7 Finally a kinsman of the 
man whose ear Peter had cut off asks, " Did I not see 
thee with him in the garden ?" Covered with confu- 
sion and embarrassment, his early habit of swearing, 
when a Galilean fisherman, comes back on him, and 
with curses and oaths he affirms, " I know not the man." 
The last word is hardly out of his mouth when the 
loud morning crow of the cock is heard. Others 
notice it not, but to the ear of this fallen disciple it 
sounds like the knell of doom. Not the crashing 
thunder, heralding the flaming thunderbolts of wrath ; 
not the roaring tempest, sounding its awful dirge around 
an ill-fated ship ; not the last toll of the bell which 
summons the prisoner to execution, are so appalling as 
that sound in Peter's ears, awakening, as it does, the 
forgotten warning of his Master. But Jesus has 



78 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



turned towards the fallen man. Behold his face as he 
looks upon him. It is not wreathed with wrath. No 
lightning glances of indignation flash from those bright 
eyes. Nay ; pity, kind remembrance, unutterable ten- 
derness mingle with rebuke. He speaks no word ; he 
will not " break the. bruised reed, nor quench the smok- 
ing flax." His look has broken Peter's heart. See ! 
he leaves the hall, goes out, and weeps bitterly and 
long. There he stands, in yon lonely place, his manly 
form shaking with grief, like an oak in a tempest. 

This was Peter's great trial. And thus his impul- 
sive self-confidence proved itself a broken reed. True, 
there are palliations for his conduct. When Christ was 
arrested, he doubtless thought the whole enterprise a 
failure. His guilt was unpremeditated, but, after all, 
it was enormous. And how clearly this illustrates the 
trial and fall of many professors of religion since 
Peter's day, who have had more confidence in them- 
selves than in Christ. At one point in their life you 
tell them that there is danger of their leaving their 
duty and Christ, but they do not realize it. Tell one 
such that yonder is a man who was once a professor of 
religion, but is now a rum-drinker, a sabbath -breaker, 
a ridiculer, a scoffer at divine things, and he says — in 
all sincerity, too — I will never disgrace my religion, I 
will never break my vows, never leave my Saviour. 
He says to the church, " If I forget thee, Jerusalem, 
let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." Time 
passes away. He begins to follow Jesus afar off. He 
neglects one duty, then another. His place in the 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 79 



weekly prayer meeting becomes vacant. He is seen in 
the sanctuary, at first but once a day, then less fre- 
quently still. His profession has become a restraint, 
a burden to him. Gradually he drops it entirely, and 
mingles with the world, the gayest of the gay. Now, 
instead of being at the communion table, he is found at 
the saloon-bar. Instead of being at the prayer meeting, 
you find him amid circles of godless pleasure. As truly 
as Peter did, he says, "I know not the man." Once 
in a while a worldling will say to him, " Did I not see 
thee with him in the church ? Did I not hear you 
speak and pray in the Christian's meeting?" Chris- 
tian young man, heed the warning of this example ! 
Rely not upon the strength of your own resolutions to 
keep you. They are to temptations only what cob- 
webs are to whirlwinds. Dream not that in your own 
strength, without the aid of all the means of grace, 
you can breast successfully the current of worldliness 
which sweeps souls away from God and heaven ! Your 
strength, compared to that force, is only as a feeble oar 
against a Niagara flood! u Let him that thinketh he 
standeth take heed lest he fall." Let the beautiful 
hymn of Montgomery be ours : 

" In the hour of trial, Jesus, pray for rue, 
Lest by base denial I dishonor thee ; 
When thou seest me grander, with a look recall 
Nor for fear or favor suffer rne to fall. 

" "With its vain allurements would this gay world charm, 
With its strong seductions strive to work me harm ? 
Bring to my remembrance sad Gethsemane, 
Or, in sadder semblance, cross-crowned Calvary." 



80 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Friend, hast thou fallen ? Despair not ; Jesus loves 
thee still. He looks on thee with pitying eye, even as 
he looked on Peter, and beckons thee again to his shel- 
tering bosom. Go to him in penitence and faith, and 
Peter's reception shall be thine. 

3. There is presented in this history, moreover, 
not only an interesting type of general character, a 
trial of self-confident character, but a beautiful exhibi- 
tion of the progressive growth of a truly Christian 
character. Although in an evil hour Peter fell, through 
the misguided power of his great impulses, yet, by the 
grace of God, he arose again, because he was neither a 
hypocrite nor an apostate, but an undeveloped Christian. 
The " root of the matter" was in him. His repentance, 
unlike that of Judas, was of "a godly sort." It led 
to Christ, and, therefore, to hope and restoration. The 
proof of this is seen in the fact that, by the command 
of Jesus, the resurrection was announced to him espe- 
cially. " Go tell my disciples and Peter," were the 
words of the risen Lord to Mary. And when he was 
restored, how beautifully his incipient Christianity de- 
veloped itself. His undue self-confidence was gone. 
His impulses were rightly directed. He never forgot 
his fall ; and it is said of him that whenever, in after 
life, he heard a cock crow he burst into tears. Look at 
the facts of his subsequent history — the high honors 
conferred on him by the great Head of the church, the 
manifestation of a courageous martyr spirit, which 
trembled not before stripes, bonds, imprisonment, and 
death itself. Behold him at Pentecost standing at the 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 81 



head of the apostolic band, interpreting the spiritual 
import of the strange phenomena the crowds at Jeru- 
salem witnessed, demonstrating with irresistible power 
the Messiahship of Jesus and the consequent divinity 
of Christianity, charging home upon the Jews with 
awful power the murder of their own Christ, and pro- 
claiming in joyful tones, on the basis of the atonement, 
hope for the despairing, pardon for the guilty, redemp- 
tion for the lost, with such success that three thousand 
men and women are converted under that single ser- 
mon. Behold him the first imprisoned apostle, the 
first to proclaim to the world that Christians will obey 
God rather than men, the first to inflict miraculous 
judgments on deceivers, and the first speaker in the first 
Christian council at Jerusalem. Behold him at Joppa. 
when his remaining Jewish prejudices were rebuked 
and removed by a vision from heaven, and at Cesarea 
opening to Cornelius, the Italian centurion, the doors 
of that kingdom which has thrown the historic glory of 
Roman sway into the shade, and long since exalted the 
dove of peace above the eagle of worldly dominion. I 
say, behold him thus, and you see in one representative 
man combined, the Chrysostom, Luther and "Whitefield 
of his day — the great light of the apostolic age preced- 
ing the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. And in old age 
you see his whole nature softened and sublimated into 
a glorious manhood. 

How much Christianity did for him ! Think of him 
as he was when it found him, on the lake of Galilee, 
a rough, swearing, uncultivated fisherman, and then 



4 



* 



82 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



as he was when he wrote, after a long life of useful- 
ness, those epistles which bear his name, which are 
so full of yearning tenderness, evangelical doctrine, 
practical admonition, burning love to Christ, and 
where gravity, polish, dignity and grace distinguish 
every line. What maturity of experience, manly power 
and ripeness of charity and piety they develop, blend- 
ing as they do the fervor of devotion, with the calm- 
ness of the wisdom of an experience gathered through 
long years of vicissitudes. 

Tradition says that he was finally crucified, and that 
he was nailed to a cross with his head downward, at 
his own request, in consequence of his conscious un- 
worthiness to die in the position, although by the 
same means, as did his Lord. Whether this be 
truthful or mythical, it equally illustrates that pro- 
found humility which is a leading characteristic of 
ripened piety. 

Let us learn hence what experimental piety can do 
for human nature. It may have small beginnings. 
There may be at first only the blade, but in beautiful 
succession, under the varied disciplinary processes of 
grace, shall appear "the ear, and then the full corn in 
the ear.' ? 

Tenderly affecting, my brethren, is that gracious, 
loving sovereignty which, as in Peter's case, overrules 
even our own infirmities and actual sins, so as to make 
them conduce oftentimes in the highest degree to the 
sanctification of our natures, and our growth up into 
the full stature of men in Christ Jesus. 



THE IMPULSIVE MAN. 83 



" Xow unto him who is able to keep you from fall- 
ing, and to present you faultless before the presence of 
his glory with exceeding joy : to the only wise God our 
Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, 
both now and for ever. Amen." 



IV. 



t 



MhulthM Ulaa, 



JUDAS, 

%\t % ii a r i 1 i o it s |lait 



" Gold, gold, gold, gold, 
Bright and yellow, hard and cold ; 
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled. 
Hard to get and light to hold ; 
Hoarded and battered, bought and sold ; 
Stolen, squandered, borrowed, doled, 
Spurned by the young, hugged by the old 
To the very verge of the church-yard mould ; 
Price of many a crime untold — 
Gold, gold, gold, gold." 



In an oration by Everett, which has long since be- 
come an American classic, you will doubtless remember 
that, haying described the landing of the Pilgrims on 
Plymouth Kock, November 9, 1620, their weariness 
after a five months' voyage, their destitution and dan- 
gers, he asks these questions : ' l Shut now the volume of 
history, and tell me, on any principle of human proba- 
bility, what shall be the fate of this handful of ad- 
venturers ? Tell me, man of military science, in how 
many months were they all swept off by the thirty sav- 
age tribes enumerated within the early limits of New 
England ? Tell me, politician, how long did this 
shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and 
treaties had never smiled, languish on the distant coast? 



88 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, 
the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures of 
other times, and find the parallel of this ? 1? ^ 

Then, after a fine rhetorical pause, he shows how 
wonderfully, in opposition to all human probability, to 
all scientific and historical calculations, success crowned 
their efforts. 

Now this is not only brilliant rhetoric, it is as true 
as it is eloquent ; but can no parallel be found ? Can not 
the student of history find a record, whose glory even 
surpasses this ? Let us see. Some eighteen hundred 
years ago, in distant Asia, at Jerusalem, there was a 
company of men who, like our fathers, embarked their 
all in an enterprise. What ivas it ? Not to secure 
for themselves or their descendants an earthly home, not 
to provide an asylum for mere liberty, not to subject a 
portion of one continent to their principles. Nay, it 
was deeper, broader, grander than this. Its design was 
to overturn all existing religions, and subdue the entire 
world to the allegiance of Christianity. Our fathers 
were cultured men ; they clearly understood the nature 
and principles of their enterprise, for those principles 
were in them the culmination of centuries of growth. 
These were unlettered men, who but poorly compre- 
hended the high spirituality of their work, its means 
and ultimate purposes. Great obstacles, indeed, were 
in our fathers' way : but against these men were op- 
posed the all-subduing Koman power, with its stern 
law and order ; the generally prevailing Greek civil- 
ization, with its science and art; both combining to 



THE AVARICIOUS MAX. 89 



strengthen the idolatry which girdled the globe : the 
power of ancient Judaism ; and superadded, the settled 
opposition of depravity in all human hearts. 

Of the Pilgrims there were one hundred persons, all 
good and true. Of these, there were only twelve, and 
of this little company, one was A traitor. 

With an emphasis stronger than that of the eloquent 
Everett, adopting his words, I say, " Shut the volume 
of history, and tell me, on any principle of probability, 
what shall be the fate of this enterprise ? How soon 
will it be blasted, crushed in its very incipiency by 
these cooperating antagonisms ? Was it not more prob- 
able that the Pilgrim fathers would succeed than they ?" 
But open that volume, and behold that enterprise tri- 
umphant over all these elements of opposition ; guiding 
to-day the footsteps of progress on every continent, and 
permeating the civilization of the races, as well as by 
its higher spiritual ministries pouring light and love in- 
to a world of human souls. 

This fact, I submit to you, can not be accounted for 
on any other theory than that which admits the divinity 
of Christianity, the presence of the God-man with these 
twelve men, whose power was magnified in their weak- 
ness, whose wisdom called to this work just the men 
needed; whose providence did for them, that which no 
earthly force could have effected. 

Just here, a question arises, which I can not put 
aside if I would. I wonder whether it has ever arisen 
in your minds, and troubled you as it has me ! It 
is this: Why did our Lord cal to this work such a 



90 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



man as Judas Iscariot, from whose character we in- 
stinctively recoil? 

Implicit faith accepts the fact, and leaves it to the 
vfisdorn of one who was too w T ise to err. But still, 
for myself, I can not help asking, Why did he do it ? 
Limiting the number of his original disciples to twelve, 
and so much depending on their personal character in 
the first stages of the work, why did he select so perfid- 
ious a man to be one of that twelve ? It certainly was 
not through ignorance of what he was, for it is clear 
that " he knew from the beginning who would betray 
him" He was never deceived by Judas; from the 
first he saw beneath that bland exterior a heart as cold 
as steel, and hard as stone. 

I have time now merely to state the answer to this 
question, which to my mind is most satisfactory. 

Was it not important to furnish to the world, the 
testimony of an enemy to the purity of the private 
character, of the founder of Christianity ? Had all of 
his intimate associates been friends, might there not 
have been ground, at least, for the suspicion that their 
partiality for him had led them to conceal what, if 
known, would have marred that character in the view 
of a scrutinizing world ? Might it not have been averred 
by infidelity, with some show of reason too, that if one 
of the twelve, who knew him thoroughly, only had pos- 
sessed the courage to turn traitor, had there been a spy 
in that little camp who could have revealed all of its 
secrets, the fair fame of Jesus of Nazareth might have 
been blasted ? 



THE AVARICIOUS MAN. 91 



But see how the possibility of such an averment. 
with its long train of consequences, is for ever made 
impossible by the testimony of Judas. He was cog- 
nizant of Christ's private life. He knew all Jesus said 
and did, his plans, and the method of their execution. 
Had there been the slightest deviation from immaculate 
rectitude, the keen eye of the false disciple had seen it, 
and an exigency arrived, when, in justification of his 
treachery, he would gladly have heralded it. But 
when his crime was committed, and his guilty soul began 
to quiver with remorse : when he had every temptation 
to reveal any thing he knew against Jesus, in order to 
soothe his own spirit and lessen the odium which he 
knew awaited him, did he make any such declaration ? 
Nay, nay, with terrible desperation he threw down the 
price of his iniquity, and in accents of despair, so bitter 
in their hopeless anguish that they startled the partici- 
pants of his guilt, he cried, u I have betrayed inno- 
cent blood! 77 Then the fundamental question, as to the 
purity of the life of Christ was for ever put to rest. 

I will next sketch to you the biography of Judas. 

Nothing is recorded of his birthplace, education, em- 
ployment, or even his lineage, except this single line, 
" he ioas the son of ISirnon" Of which, the record 
does not say, although some seven are alluded to in 
the New Testament. Nor are we informed as to the 
circumstances connected with his being numbered with 
the disciples : but in the first record of him we find 
him occupying the office of treasurer of this real broth- 
erhood of Jesus. And after the statement of that 



92 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



fact not much is said of him ; the writers, however, 
as is their wont, by a few unstudied master-strokes, 
sketch a character of marked individuality, which 
stands out in bold, dark relief on the sacred page. He 
is next presented in the picture of the miraculous feed- 
ing of the five thousand on the lake shore, where, you 
will recollect, the people were delighted with the mir- 
acle-worker. The loaves were good, the fishes were 
good, and, what was better, they cost nothing. But 
when he proclaimed the searching spiritualities of his 
religion they were displeased and turned away by thou- 
sands. Mournfully then Jesus turned to his disciples 
with the question, Will ye also go away ? And nobly 
Peter responded, "Lord, to ivhom shall ive go — for 
thou alone hast fhe words of everlasting life?" And 
then and there, in the first year of his public work, 
Jesus gazed upon the band and said, " Have I not 
chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ?" — an 
adversary. True, he did not mention any name ; but 
one man in that little group knew who was meant, and 
Jesus wished him to know the fact that he was known, 
for sure he was that on no ears, even in that vast crowd, 
had the stern spiritualism of his gospel fallen more 
unwelcomely, than upon those of the money-loving 
treasurer. In the record of the two intervening years 
no allusion is made to Judas ; but, in the account of 
the last week of our Lord's life, he again appears on 
the historic scene as a prominent actor. 

Bear in mind that the exceeding popularity of Christ 
with the masses of the people in Jerusalem, had 



THE AVARICIOUS MAN. 93 



aroused against him a powerful combination of power- 
ful foes. The high dignitaries, uniting the legal, 
literary, and Judaistic influences of the Holy City, 
strengthened by their positions, wealth, and influence, 
at last resolved, at all hazards, to put down this excite- 
ment, by putting away this Nazarene, who, without 
a single element of their influence, had shaken their 
ancient dominion to its foundations, and was hailed by 
the masses as their friend and leader. They feel that 
instantaneous and energetic action is demanded, and 
therefore a secret council is held at the house of 
Caiaphas, the High Priest, where, after consultation, 
three resolutions are passed : 

That Christ shall be put to death. That they will 
take him by craft. That this shall not be done on a 
feast-day, for fear of the people. 

This state of things is known to only two of the 
little band — Jesus and Judas. To avoid being taken 
by craft, until his time was come, Jesus remains in the 
city only during the day-time, and each evening goes 
over to Bethany, and spends the night there. 

And here a social picture is presented to us. Our 
Lord and his disciples are supping at the house of Si- 
mon, and while reclining at the meal, the door opens, 
and Mary, the sister of Lazarus, enters with a box of 
ointment, kneels, and anoints the Saviour's feet, and 
wipes them with the tresses of her beautiful hair. The 
room is filled with the delicate perfume. All appreciate 
the womanly delicacy of this expression of grateful love 
except one, and that is Judas. He looks upon her 



94 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



•with lowering brow, and takes this occasion to vent his 
growing disaffection by exclaiming, " To what purpose 
is this waste ? Why was not this ointment sold for 
three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" How 
this coarse utterance of his sordid soul jars upon the 
harmony of this delightful scene ! How thin a cover- 
ing is this for his mean avarice ! For the record adds, 
" He said this not because he cared for the poor, but 
because he was a thief and carried the bag, and used 
to take w T hat was put therein." 

Hear the response of Christ. How gratefully it 
falls upon the ears of the shrinking Mary : u Let her 
alone, for she hath anointed me for my burial. The 
poor ye have always with you. but me ye have not al- 
ways." 

That reply blasts the last hope of Judas that Christ 
is to set up an earthly kingdom, and stinging under 
this public rebuke, his resolve is taken, and on this 
very night he goes to the priests with the infamous 
proposition, " What will ye give me, and I will betray 
him unto you?" 

They hear him with fiendish joy. Here is an ally 
from a quarter whence they had not dreamed of receiv- 
ing aid. The price — thirty pieces of silver — is agreed 
on, the bargain is struck, and Judas returns to the 
disciples, and waits for an opportunity of fulfilling his 
part of the infamous contract. No opportunity occurs, 
however, until the following Thursday night. 

Touchingly affecting is the scene which opens before 
us now, in the upper room, where, after celebrating the 



THE AVARICIOUS MAN. 95 



Passover, Jesus instituted the Supper. Never hath his 
spirit been so yearningly tender. He knows that his 
last hour is at hand. He knows that ere the shades 
of another night shall gloom the world, his body, pale, 
gory, dead, shall press the cold floor of the sepulchre. 
He knows that his betrayer sits at that table with him. 
Sadly he says, " Ye are clean, but not all. He that 
eateth with me hath lifted up his heel against me." 
A pause ensues. Then he adds, " Verily I say unto 
you, that one of you shall betray me." Alarmed, the 
disciples ask, "Lord, is it I?" "It is one of you 
twelve. The Son of man goeth, as it is written of him, 
but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. Grood 
were it for him if he had not been born." John, sitting 
nearest, whispers, "Lord, who is it?" In an under 
tone he replies, "He it is to whom I give this sop." 
He gives it to Judas, and looking him straight in the 
eye, says, " What thou doest, do quickly." 

Finding himself discovered, urged on by the devil, 
Judas arises and goes out. 

It is now near midnight. See that traitor wind his 
solitary way through the empty streets to his allies 
with the information that at last their victim is in their 
power. An armed band, led by Judas, go to the upper 
room, but it is vacant now. They go out — pass over 
Kedron into Gethsemane, and suddenly the disciples 
there behold lights flashing athwart the darkness and 
hear the martial tread of soldiers. Nearer, nearer they 
come, and with dismay they see Judas leading them 
on — see him approaching Christ, exclaiming, "Hail, 



96 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Master/' and kissing him. The damning deed is 
done. The traitor's contract is fulfilled. Two words 
tell the rest of the tragic tale — remorse and suicide. 
He hurls back the blood money to those who gave it, goes 
out and hangs himself, and falling headlong, he bursts 
asunder, and all his bowels gush out. His remains are 
buried in the field of blood, and the epitaph written 
over it is, " He went to his own place." 

Such is his biography. What kind of a man was 
he ? Do any more of such men live now ? Was 
he an isolated or a representative character ? Let 
us see. I think it plain that he was a shrewd, cun- 
ning, deceitful man, in whom one propensity, the love 
of money, preponderated. In proof of the first part 
of this affirmation, I urge these facts. His shrewd- 
ness and cunning are seen in the fact that he never 
committed those indiscretions which the other disci- 
ples so often fell into. Nothing is more apparent than 
that in spite of all Christ's declarations to the con- 
trary, his disciples persisted in believing that his king- 
dom was to be an earthly one. Hence you read of 
contentions among them, as to who should be greatest 
in it. We find even the just James, and the loving 
John striving to secure beforehand, chief places of ad- 
ministrative power. But while Judas doubtless felt 
more solicitude than any other man, you read of no 
indiscreet word falling from his lips. He does not 
trouble himself with these contentions, but keeps calm, 
cool, with an eye evermore to the windward, and even 



THE AVARICIOUS MAN. 97 



when he rebuked Mary, he did it under the guise of 
care for the poor ! 

Take another fact. He 'was so secretive that he 
completely deceived his eleven associates, ivho were 
his companions for at least two years and a half 
as to his real character. 

When, on the lake shore, Christ said, " One of you is 
a devil, " not one of them suspected the respected trea- 
surer. And when, on that memorable Thursday night, 
at the table, Christ said, " One of you shall betray 
me" — bear in mind that Judas had made the betrayal 
contract days before — not even then one of them sus- 
pected him. No, they sooner suspected themselves, 
for each said, " Lord, is it I?" — and the doomed 
wretch also mumbled out, " Lord, is it I ?" More than 
this. After Christ had said, "What thou doest do 
quickly," aad Judas departed, still such was his rep- 
utation among them, that even then they did not think 
that he was referred to, for the record says, u That 
they thought Jesus had commanded Judas to buy some- 
thing for the feast, or carry a donation to the poor." 

And more still. Even when in the garden, in ac- 
cordance with the preconcerted sign, he betrayed Christ 
with a kiss, the disciples do not seem to have compre- 
hended it. 

I tell you if they had, I believe Peter would have 
cut off the head of Judas instead of the ear of the 
servant ! 

In proof of the second branch of my affirmation as 
to his character, reflect upon one significant fact. I 



98 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



refer to the manner of the betray a 1 .. The sign agreed 
upon for identifying Jesus was — a, kiss. Think of 
that ! A kiss, the world over, is a symbol of peace 
— a pledge of friendship— a testimonial of affection — 
a seal of true love. Yet by it this deceitful wretch 
proposed to betray a professed friend, and at the same 
time conceal his connection with the accursed deed. 
Oh ! had he lifted up his right hand and smitten with 
a blow that sacred cheek, it had been at least man- 
lier, less villainous, but to betray Jesus with what 
was never regarded as an exponent of treachery, but a 
pledge of fidelity, was the very culmination of base 
deceit. Indeed its baseness seems to have amazed our 
Lord himself, for as soon as he felt the envenomed lips 
on his cheek, he started back, exclaiming u Betray est 
thou the Son of man with a kiss?" 

In proof of the last branch of my proposition, viz., 
that in him one propensity \ the love of money, pre- 
dominated, I urge these proofs : 

Before his discipleship he may have been, doubtless was, 
a close, sharp man in money matters, and this trait may 
have led to his selection as treasurer. Had a phrenolo- 
gist felt of his head, he would have pronounced acquis- 
itiveness large. See this trait develop itself. He wants 
money. With the others, he anticipates that Christ is 
to establish a worldly kingdom, in which, of course, his 
first disciples will have prominent places. But while 
they dream of honor and fame, thrones and power, he 
seems to have cared nothing for them, contenting himself 
with the assurance that in the regular course of promo- 



THE AVARICIOUS MAN. 99 



tion the humble steward of the present scanty fund for 
incidental expenses must become lord high treasurer of 
the new kingdom. 

But he can not wait: he must secure some now. 
Hence he steals, little by little, from time to time — 
thief that he was. 

And, it was the yielding of his nature to this bias 
which finally led him to commit the crime which has 
branded his name with deathless infamy. For just as 
soon as all of his fondly-cherished anticipations were 
blasted, in regard to a worldly kingdom — just as soon 
as he discovered that nothing more was to be made by 
fidelity to Jesus — he betrayed him for the wretched sum 
of thirty pieces of silver. See him, in the greed of his 
sordid soul, go out from the social circle at Bethany, 
in the dark night, while the blackness around him fore- 
bodes the shadow of his doom, and wending his guilty 
way to the priestly conclave, and there deliberately en- 
ter into the infernal compact ! See the wild glare of 
his snaky eyes, the close knitting of his low brows, the 
pallor of his trembling lips, as he says, "What will 
ye give me, and I will betray him unto you ?" 

Poor, money-loving fool ! clutching for this paltry 
gain, in his desperation to secure something from what 
seemed to him an universal and hopeless wreck ! 

Such, friends, is the Judas of the Scriptures. 
Such, without stopping to notice the speculations of 
German and other critics, I believe to be a true and 
faithful portraiture of this man. 

"Was he an isolated character, or may we regard him 



100 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



as a representative man ? Would to Heaven the former 
were true ! But, alas ! alas ! the history of every suc- 
ceeding age, of almost every great enterprise ; the work- 
ings of every social, political, moral, and religious or- 
ganization reveal the existence of similarly perfidious 
men, who, for supposed present selfish aggrandizement, 
have sacrificed every other temporal and eternal inter- 
est. Ah me ! there have been, there are, cunning, 
shrewd, deceitful men, who have become traitors to 
friendship, traitors to the tenderest conjugal love, trai- 
tors to their own manhood, traitors to religion, traitors 
to liberty, traitors to country. Hence Addison ex- 
claimed, 

" Is there not some chosen curse, 
Some hidden % thunder in the store of heaven, 
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man, 
Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin ?" 

From all these successors in the line of Judas de- 
voutly let us pray, " Good Lord deliver us." 

This biography and this character suggest im- 
portant lessons. 

Of these the first is this. It illustrates how truly 
" the love of money is the root of all evil." This was 
the radical element in the character of Judas. Doubt- 
less, small at first, it produced only keen frugality. 
Doubtless he was at first as respectable a man as any of 
the other disciples, and had a repute for honesty and 
careful management of money. But this root grew down- 
ward and upward, gradually choking the growth and 
overshadowing better tendencies ■ until, finally, it fruited 



THE AVARICIOUS MAN. 101 



out into the most dismal of possible crimes. Yon be- 
hold him, for the miserable pittance of thirty pieces of 
silver — which was all he could get — betraying his Lord 
into the hands of those whom he knew were panting for 
his blood. And as developing the strength to which 
this money-loving propensity had grown, remember 
that his crime ivas unprovoked. Other great traitors 
have claimed, with some show of reason, that they had 
strong provocation. Arnold, the American traitor's nat- 
urally gallant and chivalrous spirit, it is claimed, was 
goaded to desperation by undeserved provocation and 
unrewarded merit. Greorgy, the Hungarian traitor, has 
written a book in justification of his course. But look at 
the money-bought treachery of Judas ! He had always 
been treated with kindness by his Master. He himself 
could not say one word, proffer one shadow of palliation 
or excuse for his conduct. He stands, therefore, on a 
height of bold iniquity which no other man ever reached ; 
he towers in black turpitude high above all other trai- 
tors, a stern, enduring monument of what this single 
predominating propensity of money- worship can lead a 
man to do. 

Moreover, impelled by this, he coolly premeditated 
his treachery. No human being suggested it to him, 
or solicited it from him. Nay, he alone thought it out. 
He sought the enemies of the Lord : they did not seek 
him. They offered him no tempting bribe ; nay, he 
meanly asked, " What will ye give?" And so set- 
tled was he in this purpose that he could sit un- 
agitated by the side of his Victim on the very night 



102 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



when his crime was to be consummated, and heedless 
of the awful warning then given, which it w T ould seem 
was sufficient to have staggered any ordinary criminal 
purpose, he looked, with the cool effrontery of a demon, 
in the face of Christ, and said, "Lord, is it I?" In- 
ordinate love of money was the root of all this evil. The 
keenest analyst, who will keep close to the facts and not 
speculate, can detect the operation of no other element. 
And will you tell me where are the limits of the 
workings of this passion when it once gets sway, w^hich 
dims the perceptions, indurates the conscience, and 
shrinks up the heart in its cold, calculating, plotting 
selfishness? Think of the dismal brood of crimes it 
originates — the lies, the breaches of trust, the artful 
knaveries, the heartless perfidies, the wrecks of man- 
hood, with which to-day it curses the world ! The 
truth is, that let any man in the church or out of it 
arrive at a point where avarice predominates in his 
character, and he is prepared to commit, for its grati- 
fication, any crime which he imagines he can commit 
safely. The great question w T ith him, then, with regard 
to any occupation, or specific act, is not, Is it right ? but, 
Will it pay? In other words, it is the old Judas ques- 
tion, "What will ye give?" Thus, manhood, truth, 
honor, are put up to the highest bidder ! Ah, me ! 
this question rings even now through all the ramifica- 
tions of society. In the slave market, where an auc- 
tioneer, whose heart has long since become petrified, 
pointing to a human being, cries, " What will ye give T 9 
in the claims of a licentious and venal press ; in legal 



THE AVARICIOUS MAN. 103 



tribunals where bribes blind justice ; in the pulpit 
of that most despicable of beings, a sycophantic 
preacher, who has stolen the livery of heaven to serve 
the devil in ; in the busy marts of commerce, where 
all godliness is ignored for gain ; in the halls of reek- 
less legislation : alas ! e^ery where, to ears attuned 
aright, this old Judas question is heard ! 

Young man, you think that you can never become 
so lost to the right and the true. Alas ! so once 
thought nine-tenths of the very men who now hold 
that a good bargain justifies any conduct. Remember, 
that avarice is a root full of life, and that it will grow" 
unless eradicated at once. I beg you, therefore, to 
place a just estimate on money, and nothing more ; 
and when the tempter shows you how T it can be gotten 
by lying, cheating, or perfidy, look him steadily in the 
eye, and ask, How much must I give for it? How 
much of my manhood, my self-respect ? How many 
scorpion stings must I arm my conscience with ? How 
many thorns must I plant in my dying pillow ? How 
many of the attributes of God must I array against 
myself? How much moral blindness must I bring upon 
myself? 

For, not the least of the effects of avarice is the moral 
blindness it induces. Those thirty pieces of silver 
blinded Judas to the infamy of his purposed treachery, 
and thus he was led on to crime and doom. 

2. We are here taught what sometimes, even in 
this world, are the consequences of successful avarice. 

The bargain Judas himself proposed is consummated. 



104 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



The stipulated price is paid. The coveted money is in 
his hard hand. He clutches it firmly, as all he could 
make, save, out of what he believes is a wrecked enter- 
prise. He feels a momentary exultation at the thought 
that while the other disciples get nothing, he at least 
has secured something to add to his hoarded store, 
which has slowly but surely accumulated. His part 
of the contract is fulfilled, the damning deed is done. 
Christ is in the hands of those who have resolved on 
his death. The disciples, like shepherdless, frightened 
sheep, are scattered. Exulting fiends look on in tri- 
umph, and howl, " Aha, so would ive have it" The 
traitor has nothing to do now but to eat, drink, and be 
merry. The earth uttered no groans, the heavens mut- 
tered no thunder, when he said, in tones of friendship, 
" Hail, Master, and kissed hi?n" He thinks that he 
has been very shrewd. The faithful disciples are too 
weak to injure him, and he has made friends of their 
enemies. He believes that he has covered up his tracks ; 
no one disturbs him ; both himself and his money seem 
safe ! But look at him now T . There is trouble on his 
brow, in his eyes, in his heart. Somehow he does not 
feel as he thought he should. Somehow the money, the 
money has lost its anticipated value. It does not do for 
him what he expected it would. Like fabled Midas, his 
wish is granted, but it proves a torment. His silver, as 
if touched by some magician's w T and, has become a curse. 
A new and strange feeling is working in his soul. He 
can not repress or shake it off. Ah ! it is remorse ! 
It grows keener and keener. It begins to throw the 



THE AVARICIOUS MAX. 105 



black shadow of his infamy over every object. It 
finally goads him to frenzied desperation ; wildly he 
rushes to his coadjutors, dashes the blood money at 
their feet, and shrieks. 'I have betrayed innocent 
blood !" And his own blood curdles in his heart as he 
hears their bitter response. ,/; What is that to us ? See 
thou to it." Ah ! that tears from his guilty soul the 
last remnant of hope : for feeling that 



' { The common damned shun his society, 
And look upon themselves as fiends le- 



as fiends less foul," 



he rushes out into the gloom and hangs himself. Be- 
hold now the traitor swinging by a halter of his own 
making, in the silent night air. But see. the halter 
breaks, his horribly-convulsed body falls to the earth. 
his abdomen bursts, his bowels gush forth ! 0. dis- 
gusting and appalling sight ! And the record adds, that 
with his thirty pieces of silver — as if even those who 
bought him with it dared not appropriate that polluted 
money to any other purpose — they bought with it a 
field in which his mutilated remains were buried, and 
it was called " the field of blood" 

Do you say. as many have done, that Judas was 
disappointed at the result of his treachery ; that he 
hoped thus to force Christ to assert his power and 
save himsef and his cause? I reply, that of that 
there is not a shred of proof. But. had it been so. it 
would not have diminished the traitor's guilt. Men 
are always disappointed in the results of successful 
crime. They are invariably thus deluded. Its conse- 



106 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



quences are always more terrible and far-reaching than 
are foreseen. Especially is this true of crimes commit- 
ted through inordinate love of money. It does n't do for 
them what they expected it would ; results follow they 
did not provide for, and sometimes direct judgments 
from heaven overtake them. Achan got the golden 
wedge he coveted, hut was stoned to death. Gehazi 
obtained raiment and silver by deceit, but with them 
he got perpetual leprosy. Ananias and Sapphira 
gratified their avarice by lying, but were both stricken 
dead. And God hath said, " Go to now, ye rich men 
(i. e., men who have gotten rich by unlawful means), 
weep and howl for the miseries w T hich shall come upon 
you. Your riches are corrupted ; your garments are 
moth-eaten ; your gold and silver are cankered, and the 
rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall 
eat your flesh as it were fire." 
No wonder that the poet exclaims, 

" cursed love of gold ! why, for thy sake, 
The fool throws up his interest in both worlds ; 
First starved in this, then damned in that which is to come." 

3. In this history is also illustrated the nature 
and operations of a false repentance. 

The record says that after his crime, " Judas re- 
pented himself." Mark the language ; he repented 
himself, not his sin; he felt remorse, not contrition. 
His conscience writhed ; his heart did not break. He 
had no sorrow on account of the essential turpitude of 
his guilt. Its unlooked-for consequences horrified him, 



THE AVARICIOUS MAX. 101 



drove him to frenzy, to suicide, not to a merciful God 
for pardon. He repented just as a murderer does when 
he comes in sight of the gallows he hoped to escape. 

This was false, hollow repentance, the sorrow of the 
world which worlieth death. How unlike that of 
Peter, who also sinned, but while "he went out and 
wept bitterly," Judas shed no tear: who ran eagerly 
to the vacant tomb on the resurrection morning, while * 
Judas fled from him, even after he had betrayed the 
Lord. Peter's repentance, as does evermore that which 
is genuine and evangelical, led him to a sin-pardoning 
God by the way of the cross, while that of Judas led 
him to a suicide's awful death, by the way of a gallows 
of his own erection. 

And, lastly, this history reveals to us the destiny 
of such men after death. 

What became of his guilty spirit, think you, as it 
emerged from that mangled body ? Whither winged 
its immortal flight? To a holy heaven? Nay, your 
own moral natures and the word of God both unite in 
responding, no. Whither, then ? Ah ! the record tells 
us, "He went to his own place," to that place in the 
spirit world which was "his own*' by all the affinities 
of his settled character., as well as the decree of Heaven. 
That place the Bible calls hell, where the worm of re- 
morse dieth not, and the fire of retribution is unquench- 
able, the elements of which are even now in every such 
depraved heart, and shall burn there during all the 
eternal years, unless quenched this side the grave by 
penitence and pardon through the blood of the Lamb, 



108 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



For in that lone land of deep despair, no hope ever 
gleams athwart the Cimmerian gloom. Ah ! it was in 
view of these terrible and eternal results that the loving 
Jesus uttered those fearfully true words, " It had been 
good for that man if he never had been born/' 

However we may get out of our appropriate places 
in this world, we shall not in the next. Each of us 
shall go to "his own place/ 3 that place for which we 
are prepared by the elements of our voluntarily-formed 
character, be it heaven, be it hell. 

God our Father, God our Saviour, and God the 
Holy Spirit, so renew and aid us by thy grace, we de- 
voutly beg, that we may be prepared for heaven, and 
thine shall be the glory, for ever and ever. Amen, and 
amen. 



%lt Mtlnbth Ulan* 



JOHN, 



" We need not be afraid to avow, that we have our favorites among Scrip* 
ture writers, and that a leading favorite is John. There was one ' disciple 
whom Jesus loved; 1 and we plead guilty to loving the writer supremely 

tOO." — GlLFILLAN. 



It is rare that a man's reputation exactly corresponds 
with his character. As a general truth, it is either 
better or worse, greater or less, than he deserves. 
Hence, we have overrated and underrated men, perhaps 
more of the former than of the latter. 

There are various causes productive of this effect. 
One is the false standards of popular judgment ; an- 
other is the common practice of trying different men, 
how different soever their idiosyncracies may be. by the 
same standard ; and another still, is the quite prevalent 
custom of constructing reputations on too narrow bases. 
Many a man is called a good man because he performs 
a good act, and another a bad one because he commits 
a bad deed, when, as Dr. Way land finely observes, a a 
single action is rarely decisive of character, even in re- 
spect to that department to which it belongs. A single 
illiberal action does not prove a man to be covetous, 
any more than a single act of charity proves him to be 



112 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



benevolent. How unjust, then, must it be to proclaim a 
man destitute of a whole class of virtues because of one 
failure in virtue ! How much more unjust, on account 
of one fault, to deny him all claim to virtue what- 
soever." 

It is true that the reputations of the men of general 
history are more fairly dealt with. That of Washington, 
as a patriot, rests on no single magnanimous display of 
patriotism ; that of Howard, as a philanthropist, on no 
one development of philanthropy ; that of Shakespeare, 
as a poet, on no single comedy, or tragedy; that of 
Napoleon, as a warrior, on no single successful battle ; 
or those of Chalmers and Edwards, as theologians, on 
no single sermon or book, but upon their entire his- 
tory considered in respect to such particulars. Thus it 
ought to be. For, as a house is built not with one huge 
stone or massive piece of timber, but by the proper 
adjustment of many of each, so a desirable general rep- 
utation ought to be, and in fact is, based on and grows 
up out of various developments of praiseworthy char- 
acter, and not any single act. 

Is this true, however, of the men of the Scriptures ? 
Each of these, at least the more prominent, has a repu- 
tation assigned him in the public estimation. But is 
that not very generally founded on a very narrow basis 
— on single facts in their history, rather than their 
lives viewed as a whole ? Reflect a moment — on the 
mention of either of their distinguished names do you 
not immediately associate with them some single event 
or act which in your view gives coloring to their indi- 



THE BELOVED MAN. 113 



vidual reputations ? I think that I shall be able to dem- 
onstrate in this lecture that it is emphatically true of 
the representative man, the facts of whose history and 
the true features of whose character I shall now attempt 
to unfold. 

There is much to impress us at the outset with in- 
terest in the Apostle John. The fact, that of all the 
primal disciples he was known as " the disciple whom 
Jesus loved," awakens anxiety to know what kind of a 
man attracted the special affection of our Lord, and 
enjoyed this distinguished honor. So also the fact that 
he was the youngest of the twelve apostles — having 
been, as it is supposed, only about twenty-five years of 
age at the period of the crucifixion — throws additional 
interest about him. 

He was the brother of James, who was put to death 
by Herod Agrippa, and whose memory is crowned with 
glory as the first apostle who suffered martyrdom. 
John was the younger son of Zebedee and Salome, who 
is believed to have been a near relative of the ever 
blessed Mary, the mother of our Lord. With his 
parents he resided near the sea of Galilee, and with 
his father pursued the humble occupation of fishing. 
There is evidence, I think, that his family were in 
better pecuniary circumstances than those of Peter 
and the other disciples. For the record says that when 
James and John were called, " they left their father in 
the boat with the servants," which implies that they 
carried on the business on a more extensive scale than 
others did, who are never represented as employing 



114 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



servants at all. Connect with this the fact that his 
mother is mentioned as one of those "who followed 
Christ and ministered to him of her substance/' and 
that as the intimate friend of the Marys she is spoken 
of as one of those women who came early to the sepul- 
chre on the resurrection morning, bearing spices to 
embalm the body of their crucified Lord. Remember 
also that of all the apostles, John was the only one 
who owned a house, to which, after the crucifixion, he 
led the broken-hearted mother of Jesus from the cross 
where in speechless grief she had seen that sacred form, 
which had so often been pressed to her maternal bosom, 
writhe in unutterable agony, and expire in ignominy. 
That house must have been part of the patrimonial 
estate. Nicephorus, an ancient writer, says, on what 
authority I am not aware, that " John sold part of the 
property given him by his father to Annas the High 
Priest, and with the proceeds purchased a house in 
Jerusalem near Mount Zion." Connect with these 
still another fact. I refer to the terms of familiarity 
which existed between our representative man and the 
High Priest; and from all these circumstances the 
conclusion seems inevitable that his family, both in re- 
gard to possessions and position, were superior to his 
companions. Moreover, there is throughout his entire 
history a tone of cultured refinement, which indicates 
a higher grade of social and educational influence, 
than was enjoyed by any other of the Galilean dis- 
ciples. 

Reflect too upon his name. Unlike us, Jewish 



THE BELOVED MAN. 115 



parents gave a name to their child, not simply because 
it was convenient, or had been borne by a relative, but 
because of some special significancy. His name in its 
original Hebrew form means, " favored of God." Un- 
like us, too, Jewish parents held w that they who suf- 
fered a son to grow up without being educated to the 
extent of their ability, at least in the principles of re- 
ligion, were to be ranked amongst the vilest of man- 
kind." If, therefore, Zebedee and Salome had a son 
whom, because they deemed him "favored of God," 
they called " John;" and if they held such views in 
regard to the education of children, it is fair to r>re- 
sume that they took special pains and care with refer- 
ence to the educational nurture of their favored one. 

Look now at the naked facts of his external history, 
grouped closely together. The first we hear of him 
is as a disciple of John the Baptist, then as visiting 
the Saviour in company with Andrew, attending the 
wedding at Cana, where Christ wrought his first 
miracle, " where the conscious water saw its God and 
blushed ;" and subsequently as having been called to the 
apostleship, and entering upon its duties. The first 
words recorded as having been spoken by him were ut- 
tered at Capernaum, where the Master was teaching 
his little band a lesson of humility, which they very 
much needed. He had called a little child to him, and 
taking it in his arms, said, "Whoso shall receive this 
child in my name, receiveth me ; and whosoever receiv- 
eth me, receiveth him that sent me ; for he that is least 
among you all, the same shall be great." The others 



116 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



were silent, but " John answered and said, Master, we 
saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade 
him, because he followed not with us." With unwonted 
severity, Jesus rebuked him, saying, " Whoso shall of- 
fend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were 
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his 
neck and he cast into the sea." Soon after James and 
John were sent forward to secure lodgings for the com- 
pany at a Samaritan village on their way to Jerusalem. 
The Samaritans refused to grant this privilege in their 
village, not because of any special opposition to Christ 
and his cause, but because they would not, in their ex- 
clusiveness, give " aid or comfort" to any person going 
to Jerusalem for religious purposes. John and his 
brother were terribly indignant at this conduct, and 
angrily asked, "Lord, wilt not thou that we command 
fire from heaven to consume them, as Elias did?" 
Again he was rebuked ; for the Master said, " Ye know 
not what manner of spirit ye are of." On the same 
journey another incident occurred. Peter gave expres- 
sion to the feelings of all the disciples by asking this 
question: "Lord, we have left all and followed thee; 
what shall we have?" The reply was, that their re- 
ward should be great : that they should receive an hun- 
dred fold greater than their loss. And their imagina- 
tions were fired with the prospect that seemed held out 
before them ; inasmuch as he assured them that when 
his work was completed, and he should sit down on his 
throne, they, too, should sit on thrones. The joy of 
all at this announcement was too great for words. But 



THE BELOVED MAN. 117 



John and his brother immediately set to work to secure 
the most important positions, the one on the right 
and the other on the left of the Messiah-king. Not 
daring to make this request themselves, they sought the 
intercession of their mother, who presented herself be- 
fore the Master for that purpose. Think for a moment 
of that woman. Why is the title of " mother of Zebe- 
dee's children" given her ? Why is she not called the 
" relative of the honored Mary ?" or " Zebedee's wife ?" 
or " Salome?" Was it not because the highest honor 
her ivomanhood enjoyed was to be the mother of tico 
such sons ? Doubtless she was a good woman, a good 
wife, a good neighbor ; but her motherhood of such chil- 
dren was her chief honor. Ah ! many a woman feels 
now that a similar fact in relation to herself is her chief 
glory ! It is noticeable that nothing is said directly of 
Zebedee, their father. He seems to have been a quiet 
man, who left the main part of the family administra- 
tion to his wife. Their children were called '-'sons of 
thunder;" and I very much suspect, that there was 
much more " thunder" in the composition of the mother. 
than of the father. 

Sympathizing with the ambition of her sons, Salome 
besought Christ, saying, " Grant that these, my two 
sons, may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other 
on thy left, when thou comest in thy glory." She pre- 
sented the petition, they received the answer. Calmly 
Jesus replied, " Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able 
to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be bap- 
tized with the baptism that I am baptized with ? They 



118 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



said unto him, We are able. And he saith unto thern, 
Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with 
the baptism that I am baptized with ; but to sit on my 
right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it 
shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my 
Father.'' After this, we have no mention of John, ex- 
cept that lie was present with Peter and James at the 
Transfiguration, until, in making the arrangements for 
keeping the Passover for the last time, and instituting 
the Supper, he, with Peter, was sent to select the place 
and make the arrangements. They secured the memo- 
rable " upper room" for the occasion; and at the table 
on that sad and solemn Thursday night before the cru- 
cifixion, John sat nearest the Lord, leaned affectionately 
on that sacred bosom which, on the morrow, was to be 
pierced by the cruel spear, and asked who it was that 
should betray him. He went with his Lord to Gethsem- 
ane, and when the other disciples fled, and even Peter 
followed afar off, he went with him into the hall of the 
High Priest; and when his Lord was condemned, he, 
followed him to Calvary, and was the only man in the 
little group that gathered around the cross. And when 
the final agony came on, and the dying sufferer cast the 
last glance of his glazing eyes upon the weepers be- 
neath him, and feebly but tenderly said, " Woman, be- 
hold thy son," and " Behold thy mother," no gesture 
accompanied those farewell words. The nailed and mu- 
tilated hands could make none. But they were dis- 
tinctly understood, for "from that hour that disciple 
took her to his own house." On the resurrection morn- 



THE BELOVED MAN. 119 



ing, he was the first man to visit the vacant sepulchre, 
for " he outran Peter." Only once more do we read 
of him before the ascension. With seven disciples the 
risen Lord was on the lake. He had prophesied con- 
cerning Peter's end. and then Peter asked concerning 
John, " Lord, what shall this man do?" The reply 
was, "If I will that he tarry until I come, what is 
that to thee ? follow thou me." The singularity of this 
remark caused the saying to go abroad that John was 
never to die, although. Jesus meant far differently. Af- 
ter the ascension, John seems to have been more par- 
ticularly the companion of Peter. He was with him 
in the temple when the lame man w T as healed. He was 
with him cast into prison by the Sanhedrim. He was 
deputed with him to visit the new church in Samaria. 
To these two Paul addressed himself, as to those " who 
seemed to be pillars, and gave him the right hand of 
fellowship." In the division of provinces made by the 
apostles, Asia fell to John. It is believed, however, 
that he remained at Jerusalem until the death of his 
honored charge, Mary, which occurred fifteen years after 
the ascension, and that then he entered on his great 
work. By his means churches were founded at Smyrna, 
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. After 
many years, Domitian, the Eoman emperor, ordered 
the proconsul of Asia to apprehend him, and send him 
bound to Eome, whence he was finally banished to 
Patmos, a desolate island in the iEgean sea. There 
those sublime revelations were made to him which are 
recorded in the last book of the Bible. Subsequently, 



120 KEPKESENTATIVE MEN. 



the edict of banishment was revoked, and he returned 
to Ephesus, where he wrote his gospel and epistles, 
and in a good old age, reaching nearly to a century and 
a quarter, he went down to his grave like a shock of 
corn fully ripe unto the harvest, the only one of the 
original twelve who died a natural death, encircled by 
the glory which appertained to " the last of the Apos- 
tles." 

You have now in their connection the outward facts 
of his history. Let us seek to enter into his inner life, 
to discern the type of manhood he embodied, and of 
Christian character he developed. 

After a somewhat careful examination of this his- 
tory, I am free --to confess that in my judgment the 
popular impressions concerning this apostle are erro- 
neous, and that I have quite lost patience with the ordi- 
nary pictorial representations of him. Take for instance 
Leonardi de Vinci's " Last Supper/' which is regarded 
as the best of these. You doubtless remember it, for 
it is found almost everywhere. 

In that picture, you see John nearest the Lord. 
His face is that of a tender, loving woman. The eyes 
are downcast, with an expression of feminine timidity. 
His smooth chin has no beard, and looks as if it never 
would have. The hair of his head is parted in the mid- 
dle, and falls down on either side in wavy ringlets, and 
the entire impression you receive of his character closely 
approximates effeminate sentimentalism, or at least that 
of amiability, so predominating as not only to quite 
overshadow other qualities, but to be inconsistent with 



THE BELOVED MAN. 121 



our ideas of a well-developed man. That picture, as 
well as the popular impression, gives him credit for 
heart at the expense of intellect. Now. is this correct ? 
With the facts of his life before us, we must answer in 
the negative. The John of that celebrated picture is 
the ideal of the Papacy. That is a Eoman Catholic 
picture, executed by a Romanist for the Roman church, 
and yet it truthfully embodies the general Protestant 
conception of him. 

To my mind, immense injustice is thus done to the 
John of the Bible. It makes him to have been merely 
a mild, amiable, affectionate man, and when he is spoken 
of, it is merely as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." 
But this is only one fact of his history, and I see no 
reason for believing that any peculiar softness was es- 
sential to a character, which the Master could especially 
admire. The disciples he chose were decidedly strong 
men ; strong in those elements of manly character which 
adapted them to the vast work of establishing Christi- 
anity amid the opposition of the world, the flesh and 
the devil. "Where is the proof that in these general 
characteristics John was an exception ? Let us, there- 
fore, first review the more prominent points of his his- 
tory with reference simply to discovering the traits of 
his natural manhood. 

Whence came he? From Galilee. What was his 
original occupation? That of a fisherman. What 
were the general characteristics of Galilean fishermen? 
Josephus truly says, " that they were ardor, fierceness, 
and ambition." We shall see that John possessed all 

6 



122 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



of these. But just here, I beg you to remember the 
title which , Jesus, who knew him thoroughly, gave this 
man. Surnames, you are aware, in the Scriptures, in- 
dicate the leading feature of the character of those 
to whom they are applied. Thus, James was surnamed 
Barnabas, wilich means u a son of consolation." Simon 
was called Peter, which means u a rock." What did 
the Master call John and his brother? " Boanerges." 
Does that mean sons of love, amiability? Nay, it 
means " sons of thunder." A very different element, 
therefore, must have been the predominating one in the 
natural character of our representative man, from that 
which is generally assigned to him, to have justified 
the title. 

Behold its developments as we review the leading in- 
cidents of his history. When the divine Lord taught 
that beautifully illustrated lesson of humility, John 
showed less appreciation than any other disciple, and 
manifested a spirit far from being amiable and lovely, 
both in the tone and language he used. Verily, in that 
authoritative forbidding of those who, although doing 
good, did not follow with him, I hear the " thunder" 
on account of which that surname was given him. You 
have not forgotten the keen rebuke he received. 

And when the Samaritans refused to accommodate 
the company, it certainly was neither polite nor gener- 
ous in them, but after all it was no very important mat- 
ter. But how angry John became. How his eyes 
must have flashed, and his cheeks burned, when he de- 
manded leave " to call down fire from heaven and con- 



THE BELOVED MAN 123 



sume th era !" Do you not hear the mutterings of 
thunder in these words, which indicate the presence of 
a spirit which would have hurled the consuming flames 
upon the objects of its wrath, if it could ? That cer- 
tainly was neither amiable nor lovely. 

Then see the same energetic power develop itself 
in the form of ambition. He, with his brother, not 
contented with the prospect of occupying a throne in 
the new kingdom, sought to secure beforehand the chief 
thrones for themselves. The ambition thus exhibited 
not only was severely rebuked by Jesus, but '-'the ten 
disciples were moved with indignation" against them. 
John, therefore, was not constitutionally the mild, ef- 
feminate man which pictorial and popular conceptions 
make him: but he possessed the ordinary Galilean 
traits of character, ardor, fierceness, and ambition, and 
developed them more strongly than the most of his 
brethren. 

But I have said that the current view of this dis- 
ciple gives him credit for heart at the expense of intel- 
lect. Is this not so ? Do you associate any special 
mental power with his name ? Is he not regarded in 
fact as being as much inferior to others in point of real 
intellectual energy as he was superior to them in affec- 
tionateness ? Is this just ? Doubtless he had a great 
heart, great in the wealth, great in the tenacity of its 
affections. But had he not an equally great mind? 
In order to answer this question intelligently, we must 
consider his writings, his mental productions. A dis- 
tinguished author has truly said, " St. John's was by 



124 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



eminence, as developed in his writings, an intuitive 
mind, seeing into things themselves, rather than re- 
ceiving conclusions from elaborate reasonings. He was 
as marked by this, as Paul was by logical tendency, or 
Peter by executive power. His imagination was also 
as intuitive as his reason. The Apocalypse may con- 
sistently be regarded as the work of his intuitive ima- 
gination ; his gospel, as the work of his intuitive intel- 
lect ; and the graphic imagery of the one, and the clear, 
lucid statement of the other, indicate the various action 
of the same master-mind upon divine truths." 

Consider the difference between his gospel and that 
of either of the other evangelists. While that of Mat- 
thew was addressed more directly to the Jews, that of 
Mark to the Romans, and that of Luke to the Greeks, 
John's gospel is to the world of all time, presenting 
the work of Christ in its grandest view. They begin 
by recounting Christ's earthly ancestry and the particu- 
lars of his birth. In his gospel John spreads at once a 
mighty pinion and takes a loftier flight. " He at once," 
as Jerome says, "eagle-like, pierces the empyrean, 
ascends to the throne of God, and stands self-poised 
amid its ineffable glories, and beside its awful gulfs." 
Hear his first utterance, ' l In the beginning was the 
word, and the word was with God, and the word was 
God." What writer in the Bible so fully equals Moses 
in sententious grandeur ! Behold here the Christian 
Plato presenting to us by one grand expression tbe 
eternal dignity of his Lord ; at a blow demolishing the 
foundations of prevalent Gnostic philosophy. His rec- 



THE BELOVED MAN. 125 



ord is the fullest as well as the most beautifully-writ- 
ten of any. It is a unity. The first part, reaching 
through the twelfth chapter, describes those facts of 
Christ's life which are necessary to illustrate funda- 
mental doctrines. The second part presents Christ's 
glorification, in the victory of his faith and love over 
trial, and his exaltation through death and the resur- 
rection. Commentators have called this book "the 
heart of Christ,' 5 "the permanent gospel, written as 
by an angel's pen." Thus Matthias Claudius writes 
concerning it : " Most dearly of all do I love to read in 
St. John. In him there is something so entirely fas- 
cinating: twilight and night, and through them the 
lambent, flashing lightnings. A soft evening cloud, 
and behind the cloud the great full moon itself ! Some- 
thing so pensive and exalted and full of yearning, that 
one can not tire of it. In reading John, it is always 
as if I saw him before me, leaning on his Master's 
bosom, at the last Supper ; as if his good angel stood 
by me, and in certain passages would fall upon my 
neck and speak in my ear. I do not understand all 
that I read, but often it is as if his meaning floated 
in the distance before me, and even when I look into 
some dark place, I still have a presentiment of a 
great majestic meaning which I shall one day under- 
stand." 

In his epistles you do indeed see wondrous, all-per- 
meating love, but do you not also mark the operations 
of a finely-cultured and powerful intellect? Picture 



126 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



him to your imagination on the sea-girt Patmos a ban- 
ished man, 

a Placed far amid the solitary main." 

He has survived early friends and relatives. His 
brother disciples have all long since suffered martyr- 
dom. Ninety years in their flight have passed over 
him and dropped their snows on his head. He is 
alone in his old age, and left to die on a wild shore, 
against which the merciless billows dash evermore. 
But see the strength of his manhood remaining yet, 
insomuch that he calmly writes down those awful vis- 
ions, the record of which " has made popes tremble 
and toss upon their midnight beds ; conquerors turn pale 
as they saw or thought they saw their own achieve- 
ments traced along its mysterious page, and their own 
bloody deeds anticipated ; which has fired the muse of 
the proudest poets, and the pencil of the most gifted 
artists, and drawn as students and admirers around its 
cloudy center the doctors, theologians and philosophers 
of half the world. ' ; 

Again, I ask, while admitting that John has not the 
executive will of Peter, or the controversial skill of 
Paul, or the presiding ability of James, was he not as 
great in his intellectuality, as he was in his warm and 
large-heartedness ? And were not both of a high or- 
der? God bless the artist, then, who shall depict cor- 
rectly to us the John of the New Testament, as a noble, 
finely-balanced man, and not a loving woman. For 
Jesus did not, and we can not intelligently admire a 
womanly man, or a manly woman. Both manhood and 






THE BELOVED MAN. 127 



womanhood have their own peculiar types of excellency. 
And in our representative man I claim that we have a 
truly manly character, with manly intellectual devel- 
opments, manly grasp of thought, manly aspirations. 
together with manly affections, so warm in their high 
pulsations as to throw the ruddiness of their glow over 
his entire character. Grand indeed is this type of 
manhood. Too often we see in conjunction great minds 
and small hearts, or great hearts and weak minds, but 
here we have heart and mind combined in equal and 
finely-balanced harmony. 

The following are some of the suggestions which the 
foregoing facts and analysis readily make to thought- 
ful attention. 

1. The Master displayed great wisdom in the 
ehoiee of his disciples. Look at them in a single 
group. There is Peter, with his strong impulses : 
Andrew, with his simple faith : James, with his solid 
martyr-devotion : Philip, with his willing obedience : 
James the Just, with his unbending integrity : Simon. 
with his sleepless zeal: Xathanael, with his guileless 
simplicity; Thomas, with his slow, doubting, but true 
friendship : Jude, with his warning eloquence : Judas, 
with his sordid avarice: and John, with his finely- 
balanced head and heart. His reason for choosing 
Judas we have considered. But look at them all : they 
differed each from the other, and yet each was a man 
of mark : and all retained their individual peculiarities, 
while they drank in his spirit, and worked together in 
their sublime mission. Moreover, it is truly affecting 



128 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



to witness how Jesus strengthened their personal weak- 
ness, and called out their strong points of character, 
and made each in his sphere eminently useful. So he 
does now. He calls by his grace persons of no one 
class of character. He magnifies that grace in making 
men, differently constituted, its trophies, and placing 
them in positions for which their peculiarities best 
adapt them, and in w T hich they can be most useful. 

Let us learn from him, not to expect from our fellow- 
disciples the same developments of the same traits of 
character, but to bear with each other's constitutional 
peculiarities, for there is now in the church as great a 
diversity as there was in those early times. There are 
Peters and Johns and Thomases, and representatives of 
the other types, now as then. But Peter can not be 
John, John can not be Peter ; neither of them will be 
Thomas. Each, however, can be himself, true to 
Christ and his cause ; each can occupy his own place ; 
each can be useful. While this fact teaches charity, it 
also inspires courage and fidelity. Our Master only 
requires what we can perform. Glory to his name, as 
he did not require of John to do Peter's work, but his 
own, so he only asks us to perform our own duty ; and 
each of us may sing, 

" A charge to keep I have, 
A God to glorify, 
"Who died my ruined soul to save, 
And fit it for the sky." 

2. The lesson taught us by that incident in John's 



THE BELOVED MAN. 129 



history when we first heard him speak, is tuor- 
thy of more attention than toe have given it. The 
language he then employed, so inappropriately, was, 
"Lord, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, 
who followed not with us, and we forbade him, be- 
cause he followed not with usP The person whom 
he referred to was doubtless one of the disciples of 
John the Baptist, or one of the seventy whom Christ 
had commissioned. In either case, by John's own 
statement, we know that he was doing good in Jesus' 
name. Now, doubtless, this son of thunder was honest 
in forbidding this man to do good simply because he 
did not labor in company with himself. But at that 
time, although a converted man, he was a narrow- 
minded sectarian, who really thought that no good 
either could or ought to be done unless accomplished 
in connection with himself, and his brethren. Our 
representative man here developed a spirit which is 
identical with that sectarianism of this day, which 
compasses sea and land to make a proselyte to itself, 
but looks with suspicion upon all efforts to bring men 
to Christ with which it is not identified ; which, in its 
wretched exclusiveness, endeavors to monopolize Chris- 
tianity, and will not look with approbation on any man 
or body of men, however pious and zealous, who will 
not follow with it; that proud, haughty sectarianism 
which, so far as it dare, does just what John did, au- 
thoritatively forbids others to labor for Christianity, 
because they will not follow its lead, come under its 
control, and bear its name. 

6* 



130 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



This is not the spirit of Christ. It is the spirit of 
pride and arrogance, bearing the name of religion. It 
is that unchristian spirit which makes us think more of 
Baptistism, or Presbyterianism, or Methodism, or Epis- 
copalianism, than of Christianity. As I have said, 
John was a disciple when he possessed it, but he was 
an undeveloped Christian. He had not yet compre- 
hended the world-embracing genius of the gospel. So 
we may be Christians and be sectarians now ; but if we 
are, we may be assured that we are poor Christians, 
and have yet to be admitted into the glorious liberty 
of the sons of God. When we have reached that point 
of development, we shall rejoice in the spread of Mes- 
siah's kingdom by whomsoever advanced. Then shall 
we give the hand of Christian fellowship and the word 
of cheer to all who try to do good u in Jesus' name." 
Then shall we sympathize with Paul when he says, 
u What then ? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in 
pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, I do therein 
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." 

3. The peculiar type of John's piety is worthy of 
special study. The developments of piety are always 
modified and directed, in a great degree, by the natural 
characters of its subjects. So true is this, that certain re- 
ligious developments may be relied on as the sure expo- 
nents of the existence of certain predominating natural 
tendencies. Now, it is an interesting fact, that John's 
piety assumed the form of special personal attachment 
to his Lord. This distinguishes him from his brethren, 
and has been so much noticed as to lead men to over- 



THE BELOVED MAN. 131 



look other facts in regard to hira. Because of this, 
you see him ever clinging closely to his Master. At 
the Supper, he was not invited to sit nearest Jesus, or 
lean on his bosom ; nay, he did both of these things of 
his own accord. Any other disciple, for aught we 
know, might have done the same. His strong love 
drew him there. Yfhen the others all fled, he went 
with the sacred prisoner into the judgment hall, and 
was the only one of them who followed him to Calvary, 
unawed by the fierce Roman soldiery or the fiercer 
Jewish crowd. Fearlessly he stood at the foot of the 
cross, the strong tendrils of his mighty heart clinging 
with unyielding tenderness, amid all that ignominy, 
to the person of his beloved Saviour, on whose bosom 
he could no longer lean, for it was heaving, panting in 
the unutterable death agony. He was first at the opened 
sepulchre, and until the ascension was continually by 
the side of the risen Jesus. Hence it is that in his 
writings, we find so much more of the sayings and minor 
incidents of the life of our Redeemer recorded, than else- 
where. He introduces us to a nearer intimacy with the 
private life of the Master, than any of the othere van- 
gelists. He told us " Jesus wept." He drew for us 
those sweet home-pictures, those quiet, lovely, wayside 
scenes which hang up in the New Testament gallery. 
He wrote that sentence of sentences, " God is love." 
His epistles abound with the overflowings of a loving 
heart. Indeed the very words seem dewy with tears 
of joy, as he speaks of seeing Jesus, and being like 
him. Where can pathos more touching be found than 



132 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



in the picture of this last of the apostles, ripe for 
heaven, trembling beneath the weight of more than an 
hundred years, standing amidst the followers of Christ, 
and as the first Christian patriarch, extending his 
withered hands, and in tones heavy with tenderness, 
saying, " Little children, love one another?" Think 
now of him as he was naturally — an ambitious, fierce 
son of thunder. Did his piety annihilate his natural 
forces ? Did the peculiar type it assumed, of personal 
love to Christ, weaken his natural character ? Nay, it 
only controlled, balanced, and properly directed those 
powers. Just as that after which he was named ; when 
the storm is over and the thunder ceases, no power is 
destroyed. The elements that made the storm are only 
balanced, for the roar you heard, and the lightning you 
saw, were but the irregular actions of a force every- 
where existent and essential to life. So true piety, 
instead of destroying the most energetic elements of 
manhood, controls and directs them in channels of 
highest usefulness. 

Beautiful is the story told of this apostle in his old 
age. It is said that he was seized by a band of robbers, 
whose chief was a fearful man of blood, but who, in his 
early days, had been accustomed to hear him preach. 
The aged captive asked to be led to their captain, but 
the robber chief, recognizing him at once, turned to 
flee. "Stop," cried the dear old man. "Why flee 
from me, my son ? Fear not ; there is hope 5 for I will 
be surety to Christ for thee." At these kind words, 
uttered in tender, fatherly tones, the fierce man's heart 



THE BELOVED MAN. 133 



broke ; he wept like a child, and was led back a peni- 
tent into the Christian church. 

Earnestly do I commend to you this form of experi- 
mental Christianity. Oh, it is a good thing to be a 
Christian at all ; but if you would attain the most beau- 
tiful, most useful, most happifying type of piety, imi- 
tate the example here placed before you. Cultivate an 
intimate personal acquaintance with Jesus. Cultivate 
ardent love to him as your brother, friend, Saviour. 
You, too, by faith, may sit at his side, and lean on his 
bosom; you, too, may breathe in his sweet, loving, 
long-suffering, gentle spirit; you, too, may become "a 
beloved disciple. " Alas! is it not true that but few 
of us attain to this ? We complain that we are not 
loved, when, in fact, we are not lovely. John was 
" beloved" because he " loved much." The affections 
of his nature clung and clustered around his beloved 
Lord, and thus grew strong and gloriously fruitful. 
Is it not true that to most of us Jesus is a remote ac- 
quaintance, in whom, to be sure, we trust for salva- 
tion, but who is not to us an ever-present, sympa- 
thizing, loving friend, to whom we give all the wealth 
of our hearts ? Ah, brethren ! dear brethren ! Jesus 
is willing to be to us all that he was to John. Are 
we willing to be to him what John was ? His great 
heart — yea, that heart which poured itself forth on 
the cross of redemption for us — yearns toward us in 
all its infinitude of wealth. He invites us to bring 
our poor hearts and place them against his, to be 
warmed by its beat, thrilled by its divine throbs. If 



134 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



this were so, how much Christians would love one 
another ! What heavens below our churches would be ! 
Then "Ephraim would no longer vex Judah, nor Ju- 
dah Ephraim." Then how slight would denomina- 
tional names and differences become ! How mighty 
would be the consolidated influence of the collective 
church ! Then infidelity would stand aghast, and hell 
tremble, angels rejoice, and the world soon be bathed 
in the full-orbed glories of the millennial day. Hasten 
that period, oh ascended Jesus ! So thy faithful peo- 
ple, weary of strife and contentions, cry. So the bleed- 
ing interests of thy wounded, suffering cause cry. So 
the wants of a dying race cry. 



VI. 



n 



t 



61 m 



THOMAS, 
%\}t § QVibtXX. 



' Tis a point I long to know, 

Oft it causes anxious thought ; 
Do I love the Lord, or no ? 
Am I his, or am I not ? " 



Sympathy is one of the finest developments of human 
character. Who has not known and felt its sweet influ- 
ence? In dark hours of grief, when the poor heart 
bleeds — and whose has not at some time ? — how tenderly 
soothing are the kind tones or tears or acts which indi- 
cate sympathy with our sorrow ! Human nature rarely 
approximates so nearly the divine, as when it thus gives 
proof that the tide of others' woes reaches and moves it. 

There is also mental as well as heart sympathy. 
This arises out of similarity of organization, taste and 
education. You are conscious, when your mind comes 
in contact with minds constituted like your own, devel- 
oping tastes identical with yours, engaged in objects in 
which you are interested, of an intuitive fellowship 
with them ; a drawing toward them ; a specialty of in- 
terest in them. You understand, comprehend such bet- 
ter than any other differently related. 

Moreover, there is, in addition to these, moral sym- 



138 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



pathy existing between men differently constituted in- 
tellectually, arising out of similarity of moral condition 
and circumstances. As an illustration of this, review 
for a moment the representative characters we have al- 
ready considered. In the wide world there are hosts 
of men, whose sensual natures lead them to sympathize 
with Herod, and who feel that, placed in similar cir- 
cumstances, they would most likely have done as he 
did. There are others who are in keen sympathy with 
the stern reformer, John the Baptist, and others with 
the impulsive, fiery Peter. And is it not a mournful 
fact, that throughout society there are men who sympa- 
thize with Judas in his greed for money ; and who, if 
they do not, like him, betray Christ for silver, it is 
only because they have not the opportunity ; who hesi- 
tate at nothing, even to the periling of their immortal- 
ity, in order to gratify their avarice ? There are others 
who sympathize chiefly with the powerful, and finely- 
balanced head and heart of John. I may be mistaken 
in my present anticipation — men often are in their pub- 
lic efforts — still, with the full consciousness of this, I 
make the frank acknowledgment, that I expect in this 
lecture to present a character with whose leading fea- 
ture, a larger number of persons will sympathize than 
with any previous one. That character is found in this 
representative man— Thomas, The Doubter. 

The merely 'historical facts in relation to him are 
few. We shall therefore have the more time, for dis- 
cussing topics which they suggest. Of the complete 
college of apostles there were two classes. The orig- 



THE DOUBTER. 139 



inal twelve were all Galileans, chosen from one of the 
most despised sections of Palestine. The remaining 
two. Paul and Barnabas, were Hellenistic apostles — that 
is, Jews who were horn and educated in parts where 
Grecian refinement abounded. Paul was born in Tar- 
sus, a Roman province in Asia Minor ; Barnabas, in 
the island of Cyprus. With these two may also be 
numbered their companions, the Evangelists Mark and 
Luke. All the former, L e., the Galilean apostles, 
were appointed directly by Christ himself. Matthias 
was chosen, by the one hundred and twenty disciples 
to fill the traitor's place. Thomas was one of the 
original twelve Galileans. He is called Thomas Didy- 
mus. This latter name is only a Greek translation of 
the Hebrew name " Thomas," and means "a twin 
brother." We know nothing of this man previous to 
his discipleship : and the record is very brief of him 
during the three years preceding the crucifixion. It 
is a somewhat singular fact, that the incidents with 
which he is connected are recorded only by John. The 
same thing, however, is true of several of the disci- 
ples. It is also observable that his name is frequently 
connected with that of Matthew. It has been inferred 
from this, that there must have been some close con- 
nection between them — -that perhaps he was the twin 
brother, or engaged in the same occupation when called 
to the discipleship. It would seem, indeed, that there 
must have been some social or general sympathetic tie 
between these two disciples, thus intimately connected 
in the sacred history. 



140 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



The first incident with which Thomas is associated 
occurred in connection with the raising of Lazarus from 
the dead, under the following circumstances. The hos- 
tility of his opponents in Jerusalem had become ex- 
cited to such a pitch, that they sought to put Jesus to 
death ; but he escaped out of their toils, and with his 
little band retired beyond the Jordan, where John first 
baptized. There a messenger reached him from Mary 
and Martha, who said to him, " Lord, he whom thou 
lovest is sick." Strange to say, after Jesus had re- 
ceived this intelligence, he remained where he was two 
days, during w T hich time Lazarus died. Then he said, 
" Let us go into Judea." The disciples — surprised 
that he should thus rush into mortal danger — endeav- 
ored to dissuade him. But firmly Jesus responded, 
" Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, and I go that I may 
awake him out of sleep." The disciples doubtfully 
shook their heads, and said, "If he sleep, he shall do 
well." " Then Christ said plainly, ' Lazarus is dead : 
and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to 
the intent ye may believe. ' " At this point we hear 
Thomas speak for the first time. He says to his breth- 
ren, "Let us go that we may die with him." The 
Master made no reply. 

The second incident occurred on the night previous 
to the crucifixion, while at the Lord's table. With 
superhuman tenderness, Jesus said, "Let not your 
hearts be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in 
me. In my Father's house are many mansions : if it 
were not so I would have told you : I go to prepare a 



THE DOUBTER. 141 



place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for 
you I will come again, and receive you unto myself; 
that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither 
I go ye know, and the way ye know.*' Again we hear 
Thomas speak and say, u Lord, we know not whither 
thou goest, and how can we know the way?" This, 
you perceive, was in direct opposition to what Christ 
had said : and I imagine his tenderness giving place to 
surprised dignity as, looking at Thomas, he replied, 
" I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man com- 
eth unto the Father but by me." 

The third incident was on this wise : the appre- 
hension, trial and crucifixion of the blessed Saviour 
had transpired. That terrible Friday and Saturday 
were passed, and the first day appeared whose early 
dawn saw the scene we thus celebrate in holy song : 

" Angels, roll the rock away ; 
Death yields up its mighty prey : 
See ! he rises from the tomb, 
Rises with immortal bloom. 
Christ the Lord is risen to-day, 
Sons of men and angels say, 
Eaise your songs in triumph high, 
Sing, ye heavens ; ye earth reply ; 
Sin's redeeming work is done, 
Fought the fight, the battle won ; 
Lo, our Sun's eclipse is o'er, 
Lo, he sets in blood no more. 
Yain the stone, the watch, the seal ; 
Christ hath burst the gates of death ; 
Lives again our glorious King ; 
Where, Death, is now thy sting ? 
Once he died, our souls to save. 
"Where's tby victory, boasting grave ?" 



142 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



With lightning rapidity the news flew from lip to lip — 
" The Lord is risen, the Lord is risen." At length the 
resurrection day closes. Amid the gathering gloom, 
from different points, trembling with fear, the disciples 
meet at the memorable upper room. The doors are 
closed. Wonderingly they gaze upon each other, as they 
remember the fearful scenes, which have transpired since 
last they were assembled there. All their long-cherished 
hopes had expired. They had never again expected 
thus to meet, and now, in solemn silence, they wait for 
the fulfillment of their Lord's promise. . They wait, how- 
ever, but a few moments, for suddenly the risen Jesus 
appears among them, and with superhuman beauty and 
unutterable tenderness beaming from his face, where 
so lately triumphant death had placed his awful sig- 
net, lovingly he said, in joyful tones, a Peace be with 
you." Then, to confirm their faith, he showed them 
his hands where the nail scars of the cross were visible, 
and his side where the. soldier's spear had pierced it. 
Overwhelmed by the mighty revulsion of their feelings, 
from despair to hope, from misery to bliss, all doubt 
and fear gone, the disciples felt within them the energy 
of a strange and new power, as the Lord breathed upon 
them, and for the first time said, " Keceive ye the Holy 
Ghost." Now look over that radiant band. There is 
Peter, John, Philip, Andrew, Bartholomew, Matthew, 
James, Zelotes. Jude, and James the son of Alpheus. 
But these make only ten. Where are the other two ? 
Judas is dead. Only one then of the living disciples 
is absent. Who is that one ? Ah ! it is Thomas. He 
is not present at this sublimely interesting meeting. 



THE DOUBTER. 143 



During the ensuing week his brethren meet and with 
inexpressible gladness tell him, "We have seen the 
risen Lord." But look at him. No joy beams from 
his face. The cloud is not lifted from his brow ; nay, 
with sturdy vehemence he exclaims, " Except I shall 
see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my fin- 
ger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into 
his side, I will not believe." We hear no more of him 
during that week. But on the evening of the first day 
of the second week, the disciples are again assembled in 
the upper room, and now Thomas is with them, and lo ! 
Jesus again stands in their midst. All are silent. The 
Saviour's eye seeks and finds the disciple, who was ab- 
sent at the previous meeting. No one has told him 
what the doubting Thomas had said. But hear him, 
as he speaks to the doubter. There is no anger on his 
brow, nor in his voice, but there is a mournful sadness 
in his words as he says, "Thomas, reach hither thy 
finger, and behold my hands ; reach hither thy hand and 
thrust it into my side." With abashed reluctance he 
obeys. His finger is in the place where the cruel nail 
has been. His hand is in the healed wound left by the 
spear. His frame quivers with emotion. His vision 
is dimmed by tears. His doubts — 0, how ashamed he 
is of them now — all disappear, and he cries, " My Lord 
and my God." Calmly Jesus replies, " Thomas, be- 
cause thou hast seen me thou hast believed ; blessed 
are they that have not seen and yet have believed ; be 
not faithless, but believing." The only record we have 
of this man in the Scriptures subsequently, is the state- 



144 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



ment that he was one of those who were with Peter on 
the sea of Tiberias, when Christ appeared to them the 
third time. 

We have now collated all that the New Testament 
says of Thomas. From other sources, such as Origen, 
Jerome and others, we learn that he preached the gos- 
pel in Parthia, Media, Persia, Ethiopia and in India. 
Indeed, it is claimed that he introduced the gospel into 
India, and it is affirmed that, from the earliest times 
until the present, there has existed in that country a 
large body of religious people who style themselves 
" St. Thomas Christians." They tell travelers many 
traditions respecting him, and even point out a place 
where they say he was martyred by the Brahmins and 
buried. I submit to you, 

1. That in this maris character a jjeculiar type 
is developed, ivhich we have not before considered. 

Bear in mind, that he was not only a disciple, but 
elevated to the dignity of apostleship among the orig- 
inal twelve. Such was his positional eminence. But 
in him you see the development of a mind characterized 
by slowness to perceive spiritual truths, and to believe 
them, a mind in striking contrast with the confiding 
spirit of John, and the headlong zeal of Peter. Thomas 
doubtless possessed courage and rectitude. He seems 
to have desired to do right, and to have experienced an 
ordinary degree of love to Christ ; but you never see 
him boldly committing himself to the guidance of high 
spiritualities, or maintaining a calm equipoise of stead- 
fast faith. Incredulity was perhaps with him a consti- 






THE DOUBTEK. 145 



tutional tendency ; at any rate so marked is its develop- 
ment in his history, that by the universal Christian 
world he is called "doubting Thomas." And do not 
the facts of his history justify this title? Let us see. 
Reflect upon that circumstance in connection with which 
we first heard him speak, when the Saviour, having 
been informed of the sickness of Lazarus, after two 
days proposed to return to Judea, which in the dis- 
ciples' view was to rush upon certain death. When 
Jesus would not be dissuaded from his purpose, Thomas 
said, "Let us go also, that we may die with him! ?; 
Some suppose that the pronoun "him" refers to Laz- 
arus, and the meaning to be " We will go and meet 
the same fate which Lazarus has, for we shall certainly 
be put to death ! ;? But it appears to me plain that the 
reference is to Christ, and that Thomas intended to say, 
" The Master will go, and if he does he will certainly 
be put to death ; let us go and die with him I" Now, 
assuredly there is devotion to the person of Christ here 
manifested ; but the courage exhibited seems more like 
desperation than any thing else. Whether, therefore, 
the reference was to Lazarus or to Christ, the same 
lack of faith, the same positive doubt is developed in 
regard to the Saviour's ability to do what he had prom- 
ised, for he had distinctly told them that the issue of 
the journey should glorify him and confirm their faith, 
because not only would they be safe, but he would 
awake even Lazarus out of his death-sleep. Is it not 
clear that Thomas at least doubted, if he did not dis- 
believe these declarations? 

7 



146 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Reflect upon the second incident which transpired on 
the night before the crucifixion, when the Saviour had 
plainly and beautifully spoken of heaven as of his 
Father's house, about his going thither and returning, 
and concluded by saying, " Whither I go ye know, and 
the way ye know." No other disciple said a word. 
They seemed to comprehend him. But Thomas, look- 
ing up into his Lord's face, bluntly affirmed, " We 
know not whither thou goest, and how can w T e know 
the way?" See you not the workings of a mind slow 
to perceive, and of a heart still slower to believe ? The 
same trait is developed stiH more strongly in the last 
incident. He not only had failed, as did the others, 
to believe Christ when he distinctly told them that he 
should rise again on the third day, but Thomas would 
not believe the testimony of his ten brethren, who told 
him that they had actually seen the risen Lord, heard 
him speak and received his blessing. Nay, he says, 
" I will not believe except I see in his hands the print 
of the nails, and put my hand into the print of the nails, 
and thrust my hand into his side." See you not now 
how well he deserves the title of " doubting Thomas," 
and how conspicuously this development of character 
stands out in his history ? 

Need I say that he is a representative man ? that 
the world is full of doubters, and that multitudes de- 
velop the same peculiarity, although chiefly directed 
toward different points ? Let us classify and consider 
some of these. 

There are a small number of philosophical doubters. 



THE DOUBTER. 147 



These are men, who, on what they call philosophical 
principles, doubt almost every thing. They profess to 
be very keen logicians, and delight to dwell upon the 
sophisms, defective logic, and changing views of other 
men. They enjoy putting up one system against an- 
other, and then showing; how each destroys the other. 
At one time, they side with the idealist, who denies, or 
at least doubts the existence of matter : at another, with 
the sensationalist, who denies or doubts the existence of 
mind, and accepting, though at different times, both of 
these, they have really no reality left, neither matter 
nor mind. Because men do not entirely agree, they 
argue that there is no standard of agreement, overlook- 
ing the fact that there are more points upon which men 
have positive agreement, than there are upon which they 
have positive differences. These doubters perpetually 
point us to the dark segments of the sphere of knowl- 
edge, and declare that we know nothing with certainty. 
While they practically ignore the fact, that there is clear 
light upon the most important segments, and in refer- 
ence to the others overlook the important distinction 
between incompleteness of knowledge and total ignor- 
ance. Their motto, " we can not believe or disbelieve, 55 
is as unphilosophical as it is false. Essential truths 
are within the grasp of the universal human mind. 

There is another class who are in reality mere cav- 
ilers. These are persons who seem to enjoy the repu- 
tation of being skeptical, of seriously doubting what 
those around them believe. They delight in proposing 
strange questions, and starting sharp dilemmas. They 



148 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



prefer to be antagonists. They thus attract special at- 
tention. They quibble far more than they argue. To 
search out and dwell upon what seem to be contradic- 
tions in the Bible, affords them vast pleasure. A nota- 
ble instance of this is found in Voltaire's writings, 
where he seriously charges Luke with contradicting 
himself, because in his gospel he says Christ ascended 
from Bethany, and in the Acts, from Olivet. Poor 
man, he did not know that Bethany was located on the 
Mount of Olives ! 

There is, however, a large class of honest doubters. 
This is made up of men who are constituted as Thomas 
was, and seem naturally prone to incredulity, whose 
perceptions are their weakest mental points, who are 
slow to believe on any subject, and whose emotional 
nature has too great control over their intellectual. 
Such are more or less timid in regard to every thing 
they undertake, and disposed to look on the dark side 
of all matters. This extends to their business affairs. 
If they are really doing well, they often fear that they 
shall become bankrupt. Although they possess a com- 
petency, they are often distressed lest they shall die in 
a poor-house. If it is clear weather, they apprehend a 
storm soon. If they have no trouble of their owtl, 
they will assuredly borrow some. Their faces even 
seem to have a natural tendency to elongation, and 
their voices to groans. They never grasp strongly 
and rest securely upon the great laws of Providence. 
When converted, their religious characters are affected 
by this constitutional bias. They doubt, fear, and hope ; 



THE DOUBTER. 149 



hope, doubt, and fear ; and often go, even after years 
of experience of the grace of God, when they ought to 
be " steadfast and unmovable, abounding in the work 
of the Lord/" dolefully singing, 

11 'Tis a point I long to know, 
Oft it causes anxious thought ; 
Do I love the Lord, or no ? 
Am I his, or am I not?" 

2. Let us consider some of the causes of doubting, in 
reference to religion. 

These are various. We can notice, however only 
those which have a direct bearing on our discussion. 
With some the peculiarity of temperament to which I 
referred is the cause ; with others downright ignorance 
is a cause, and with others a wrong educational bias 
has a potent influence in this direction. Multitudes of 
others still are influenced by a preference not to believe 
— a conscious dislike to religion. They prefer to se- 
cure arguments against it, rather than in its favor. 
They secretly enjoy far more what will confirm a doubt 
than what will remove it. . They do not desire to become 
Christians. They do desire to strengthen themselves in 
their present position. 

But with honest, sincere doubters there are two in- 
fluential causes in operation, both of which we find il- 
lustrated in the life of Thomas. 

Of these, one was his failure to give due weight to 
competent testimony. 

Bear in mind that such testimony is a divinely- 



150 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



established source of knowledge ; and that the most of all 
we know is actually thus derived. All you know of 
past history or of events which have transpired since you 
were born, except the few of wdiich you have been per- 
sonally cognizant, is thus derived. All you know of 
the places, cities, countries of the world, except the few 
you may have visited, is thus derived. All the legal 
business of all lands, as well as most of the other kinds 
of business which men prosecute, is based on this. Can 
you conceive of a more ridiculous position any man 
could assume than his who says, "I will not be- 
lieve any thing except what I have myself seen, been 
personally cognizant of, or experienced?" Let all take 
this position, and confidence will be broken up be- 
tween man and man, society be disruptured, and the 
race settle back into barbarism. Friend, the human 
mind is so constituted that all it intelligently can ask, 
in order to believe, is competent \ adequate testimony. 
Had Thomas this proffered to him ? Let us see. He 
had the prophetic promise of the resurrection of the 
Messiah given in the Scriptures. He had the explicit 
declaration of Christ, repeated again and again, that he 
would arise from the dead. He had the testimony, 
first, of Mary, w T ho had seen the risen Lord in the gar- 
den, and spoken to him ; second, that of Peter, to whom 
Christ had shown himself; third, that of the two dis- 
ciples, who, upon the road to Emmaus, had walked and 
freely conversed with him; and, fourth, he had the 
united testimony of ten men of tried character, and un- 
sullied reputations, who had personal knowledge of the 



THE DOUBTER. 151 



fact that the Lord Jesus, according to promise, had 
met them on the evening of the first day ; that they had 
seen his risen body, heard his voice, and received his 
blessing. Was not this competent, adequate testimony ? 
Was it not sufficient to establish any fact in a court of 
judicature ? And yet, with all this before him, Thomas 
sturdily said, " Except /shall see in his hands the print 
of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the 
nails, and thrust my hand into his side, / will not be- 
lieve." Do you not feel that he greatly erred in not 
giving due weight to such conclusive proof? Why 
should he not believe his brethren ? What motive 
could they have for falsehood and deception? Many 
of them were better men, all of them as good, as him- 
self. 

Friends, the same cause operates still. Thousands 
on thousands have similar doubts, which have a similar 
origin — they do not, they will not give due credit to 
proper testimony. 

It is sad, but true, that large numbers of persons are 
ignorant of the evidences of Christianity. They do 
not, they will not take the trouble to acquaint them- 
selves with them, and therefore they easily fall a prey 
to infidelity, especially when it comes to them under 
the guise of some popular " ism." Others are to a 
degree acquainted with these, and yet doubt, simply 
because they do not give the same weight to this testi- 
mony which they do unhesitatingly give to evidence 
weaker and less reliable, touching other matters. Of 
course this is not the place to present the grand and 



152 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



irresistible array of external and internal proof of the 
divinity of Christianity. And yet, I may refer to one 
branch in this connection. I refer to the testimony of 
those in whom you have the most implicit confidence, 
in relation to their personal experience of the divine 
truthfulness of the Bible, its doctrines and consola- 
tions. Such testimony, your father, your mother, your 
brother, your sister, the wife of your bosom and the 
friend of your heart, have given you. They have af- 
firmed it amid the varied circumstances of life. They 
have affirmed it in the honest, solemn, awful hour of 
death. With their expiring breath they have witnessed 
for Jesus. And yet you doubt ! You would believe 
them most implicitly in regard to any thing else — you 
would blush with very shame to suspect, even, their 
intelligence or honesty in relation to any other subject 
concerning which they should speak with such cer- 
tainty and interest. But in spite of their evidence, 
still you doubt the reality of experimental Christianity ! 
Many, who are Christians, doubt, for the same es- 
sential cause. They fail to give full credit to the 
promises of God. Sometimes they put less faith in 
his than they do in men's promises, or than they de- 
mand that others should place in their own. They do 
not grasp the plenitude and eternal verity of all the 
words of Jehovah in coveneait. Instead of looking at 
him as their God, they look at themselves. Instead of 
fixing their attention upon the infinitude of grace, they 
see only their own unworthiness, which they fear is 
more than a match for omnipotent love. They are 



THE DOUBTER. 153 



guilty of unbelief which refuses to heartily receive di- 
vine assurances. They overlook the fact, that it is 
just as easy for the ocean to bear on its vast billows 
the hugest ship that ever sailed, as to float the torn 
sea-weed ; as easy for the sun to bathe in its world- 
embracing beams a mountain as a molehill ; as easy for 
the wheeling globe to bear around the continents as a 
grain of sand ; even so, Jehovah Jesus can bear with 
great unworthiness as easily as with little, pardon 
many sins as easily as a few, '''save unto the utter- 
most all who come to God by him." They fail to be- 
lieve that salvation is all of grace, rich, sovereign, al- 
mighty grace ; that we " are accepted in the Beloved ;" 
that "he is made of God unto us wisdom, righteous- 
ness, sanctification, and redemption:" that "we are 
complete in him." So, also, there are those who fail 
to give due credit to the testimony of their own expe- 
rience in relation to the fact of their conversion. Such 
an one says, " I have no doubt in regard to the Bible, 
I know it is true. I do not doubt the promises, I know 
they are ample. But ah, me ! I do doubt as to whether 
I have ever known the grace of God, whether I have 
ever been regenerated, whether I am a true Christian. 
This is my trouble." Do not such reject testimony? 
Do they not know that hypocrites are never thus 
troubled, that such were never the anxieties of an Tin- 
regenerate soul ? Friend, are you thus doubting ? 
Tell me, do you not know that you are not what you 
once were, that you are conscious of exercises of heart 
and mind toward sin, the blessed Saviour, the Bible, 



154 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



your heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit, the people of 
God and his service, to which you were once an entire 
stranger ? Do you not know that whereas you were 
once blind, now you see ? Haye there not been hours 
when your evidence of acceptance was clear and de- 
cisive — when the Spirit witnessed to your soul that 
you were born of Grod ? Do you not know that even 
now, while you are yielding to gloomy doubts, that 
earth has not wealth enough to buy the hope you cher- 
ish that Christ is yours and you are his? " thou 
of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt ?" Why throw 
away all these tokens of grace ? How could you know 
what a cold heart is, if yours had never been warmed 
by redeeming love ? How could you know what spir- 
itual darkness is, if you had never known the light ? 
u be not faithless, but believing." Shake off thy 
guilty fears. Leave thyself in Jesus' care, and go to 
work in his vineyard. 

The other efficient cause of doubting, which we find 
illustrated in the record concerning Thomas, is this : 

He not only failed to give due weight and credit to 
the testimony which was presented to him, but he had 
gotten into a bad spiritual condition. Do you ask in 
what way ? The record amply shows. Let us recall 
a few of its facts once more. Distinctly the Redeemer 
had assured him and his brethren that he would " arise 
from the dead on the third day." He fulfilled his prom- 
ise, and appointed a meeting with his disciples on the 
evening of that day. The evening came. The scat- 
tered band, with a single exception, were all present, 



THE DOUBTER. 155 



and to their overwhelming joy, their risen, triumphant 
Lord appeared among them. They saw him, heard 
him, and received a holier, richer benediction from 
him than they had ever experienced before. And 
what a meeting that was ! Never in time did they 
forget it, nor yet in eternity has its blessedness faded 
from their memories. It was the new beginning of a 
new life, yea, it was to them " life from death." Not 
one of those present had a doubt or fear left. Nay, all 
doubts, all fears were for ever banished before the grand 
illuminations which burst upon them at that meeting. 

But, alas ! one man was absent from that meeting. 
That man ivas Thomas. Thomas, Thomas, why 
were you not there ? How could you absent yourself 
from such an appointment ? Had you some worldly 
business to attend to, or did some trivial excuse detain 
you? Poor, weak brother, what a loss you sus- 
tained! Had you been where you ought to have 
been, had you filled your place among your brethren, 
you would have had the same evidence they had; 
received the same blessing they received : been as 
happy as they were ; as free from doubt as they be- 
came. But you voluntarily neglected your duty, and 
you fell into darkness and doubts ! Who wonders at 
it ? No one can. The cause was adequate to produce 
the effect. 

The same cause is producing the same effect through- 
out the whole Christian world to-day. Multitudes neg- 
lect the means of grace. Like Thomas, they absent 
themselves from the sacred places where the Lord 



156 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



meets and blesses his people. At least half of the 
members of all our ch arches habitually neglect the 
weekly prayer meetings. Like our representative man , 
they lose the blessings those receive 

" When heaven comes down our souls to greet, 
And glory crowns the mercy seat." 

They neglect the Bible and the imperative duties it 
imposes on them. Is it at all strange that, like Thomas, 
they become cold, dark, and faithless ? Is it strange, 
that like him they become filled with doubts and fears ? 
After an experience of sixteen years in the ministry, I 
give it as a fact within my own observation, that those 
who do habitually wait upon the Lord in the use of the 
means of grace, do not doubt, are not fearful and un- 
believing, but enjoy a comfortable hope, a steady faith, 
and at times, at least, a " joy which is unspeakable and 
full of glory," while those who pursue the opposite 
course are filled with darkness, doubts and fears, even 
if they do not sink down into hard-hearted, worldly 
indifference. Brethren, this is, this must be so. The 
means of grace are the channels through which alone 
we may expect the flow of divine influences into our 
souls. They are of divine appointment, and can not 
be neglected with impunity. In them Christ meets us 
and communes with us. By them our faith and hope 
and love are nourished. If, therefore, we neglect them, 
we sin, we violate our covenant obligations, we bring 
darkness upon ourselves, we invite doubts, and make 
room for harassing fears. 



THE DOUBTER. 157 

A member of Rowland Hill's church, who had com- 
plained of doubts, and was living in entire neglect of 
his church duties, one day called on him. and = 
•'•Pastor. I have got clear of all mv doubts.''' Mr. 
Hill watched his course for a while afterw:.. 
seeing that he continued to live as he had. me: him 
one day and sternly said. ••'ZSow. sir. you say you 
do not doubt any more for yourself. I begin to doubt 
far your 

In conclusion, let me add that the operation of 
this cause is not confined to church members alone. 
There are conditions which are essential to the attain- 
ment of knowledge of any kind. This- is true of a 
knowledge of business, of the world, philosophy, or 
science. So essential are they that no man can attain 
it who does not adjust himself to them. Precisely so 
is it with regard to religion. It must be Bought in 
God's appointed ways to be found. And whoever will 
thus seek he shall find. ;; If any man will do his will 
he shall know of the doctrine."' Friend, are you des- 
r of a saving acquaintance with Christianity ? 
put yourself in positions, by the 
dished means, where God can meet you. 
■ I being in the way. he ie^ me to 
the b my master's brethren.''" Do you refuse 

lo this ? Then. then 

"We r . not for broad Ian 3a lost, 
Weep not for fail hopes sussed, 
Weep not when Emt a grow old, 
Veep not fix friends grown cold, 



158 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Weep not that death must part 
Thine and the best loved heart ; 

Yet weep, weep all thou can, 
Weep, weep, because thou art — 

A self -deluded man." 



VII. 



%Bh fUligiaus fnqttltm 



NIOODEMUS, 



"Acquaint thee, O mortal! acquaint thee with God, 
And joy, like the sunshine, shall beam on thy road, 
And peace, like the dew-drop, shall fall on thy head, 
And sleep, like an angel, shall visit thy "bed. 

" Acquaint thee, mortal ! acquaint thee with God, 
And he shall be with thee when fears are abroad, 
Thy safeguard in danger that threatens thy path, 
Thy joy in the valley and shadow of death." 



To inquire, search after truth, is one of the most in- 
teresting exercises of which the human mind is capable. 
Your children never exhibit a more promising trait than 
■when they develop a disposition to make inquiries, which 
sometimes leads them to ask questions which you find 
it difficult to answer. Nothing more dignifies a young 
man than the development of a spirit of investigation. 
No exponent better indicates the intellectual and moral 
condition of any community, than the degree in which 
this constitutes a characteristic. At no point in their 
history do the great minds of the world appear in- 
vested with such sublimity of interest, as when we be- 
hold them searching into hitherto unexplored realms 
after new truths. When is Galileo encircled with such 
interest as at the point where he commenced his inves- 



162 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



tigations by watching the oscillations of the old cathe- 
dral lamp, from which he was led on to such important 
results ? or Newton, as when commencing his career of 
unparalleled brilliancy by the discovery of the principle 
of gravitation ? or young Watt, as when, seated by his 
mother's hearth, his attention was directed to the steam 
which issued from her kettle, and the inquiry sprang 
up within his ardent soul as to Avhether that force might 
not be applied to purposes of usefulness — an inquiry 
whose results have changed the face of the world? 
All great discoveries have been made by inquiring 
men. They have been the world's intellectual pioneers, 
and have reaped in their own souls the virgin harvests 
of truth. 

Such a spirit, however, is interesting in the ratio of 
the elevation and importance of the object toward which 
it is directed. He who is investigating an atom inter- 
ests us somewhat ; but how much does he who is en- 
deavoring to reveal the secrets of a globe ? So does he 
who is engaged in developing our material natures and 
necessities, but assuredly far less than does he whose 
investigations relate to our immaterial natures, their 
spiritual necessities, and the fullness of God's supply to 
meet them. The latter belongs to the province of re- 
ligion, and is the specific work of the religious inquirer. 

While, therefore, men occupy a noble position when 
inquiring in any department of the wide realm of truth, 
theirs is the noblest who intelligently seek to know re- 
ligious truths, for it relates to the highest possible sub- 
jects — Gocl and the soul, sin and redemption; because 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 163 



it appertains to our highest, most enduring interests ; 
yea, interests which shall live involved in weal or woe 
when the earth shall have been wrapped in its shroud 
of flame, and during all the subsequent " eternal years 
of God." A man occupying this position I now pre- 
sent to you in Nicodemus, the religious inquirer. 

As in an art gallery there are some full-length por- 
traits, some half size, some busts, and others mere out- 
line sketches, which latter, by a few masterly lines, in- 
dicate prominent and characteristic features ; so in the 
New Testament exhibitions of men, there are full and 
partial delineations of life and character. Our present 
subject belongs to the latter class. The place he occu- 
pies on the canvas is limited, but the drawing is per- 
fect, the coloring is deep yet perfectly natural, and the 
sketch strikingly impressive. 

The first thing concerning him w T hich arrests atten- 
tion is the position which he occupied in society. 

He was a u ruler of the Jews," that is, he was a 
member of the Sanhedrim, the supreme council or court 
of Jewish national judicature. Many suppose that it 
was originally founded by Moses, and reorganized by 
Ezra, but the more probable opinion is that it was es- 
tablished by the Maccabees, or Asmoneans, who as- 
sumed the government under the title of High Priests. 
The room in which it convened w r as a rotunda, half of 
which was within and half without the temple. This 
may seem strange ; but are you aware that it was un- 
lawful to sit in the temple at Jerusalem ? Hence the 
Sanhedrim, who wished to have the influence of the 



164 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



holy place, to give force to their authority, built their 
rotunda half within it and half without. They sat, dur- 
ing their deliberations, in the part which was outside of 
the sanctuary. The president was called a " Prince," 
and sat upon a throne ; his deputy bore the title of 
" Father of the House of Judgment," and was located 
on the right hand ; his sub-deputy, seated on the left, 
was called " The Wise," and the members, seventy in 
number, filled the remaining portion of the semicircle. 
To be a member of this body was next to the highest 
positional eminence among the Jews, and therefore the 
following qualifications were requisite : it was required 
that a man should be of unstained birth, skilfull in the 
written and traditional law, acquainted with physic, as- 
trology, mathematics and the languages ; that he should 
not be a usurer, a gamester, or deformed, but of good 
personal appearance, mature age, and wealthy. The 
authority of this body, although much crippled by the 
Roman invasion, was at this time very powerful in Je- 
rusalem, and had, in every town and city of Palestine, 
inferior councils, consisting of twenty-three persons each, 
which were subordinate to and controlled by it. 

You perceive now, in the absence of any detailed ac- 
count of the life and social condition of Nicodemus, how 
much concerning him we learn from the mere fact that 
he was a member of this august body. From this mem- 
bership we know that he occupied a high position among 
his fellow-citizens ; that he was of mature age, a man 
of culture and influence, possessed of wealth and repu- 
tation. Jewish writers make frequent mention of a 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 165 



Nicodeinus who lived during this period in the Holy 
City, was a ruler, and one of the three richest men in 
Jerusalem; so rich, they say, that upon her marriage, 
he gave his daughter u a dowry of a million golden 
denarii." But, they add, he subsequently became so 
poor that his daughter had to beg bread — a result 
plainly explicable upon the theory that he was identi- 
cal with the jS^icodemus of the JSTew Testament, who, 
we believe, became a Christian, and if so, his property 
would be one of the very first objects of the confisca- 
tion which was general during the persecution which 
followed the death of Stephen. 

The next thing concerning this man which interests 
us is his position as a religionist. Three sects at that 
time were dominant among the Jews. The Essenes, who 
were chiefly monks or hermits ; the Sadducees, who de- 
nied the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the 
body, rejected all traditions, and professed to receive 
the Old Testament : and the Pharisees, who were the 
most numerous, popular, and influential, tenacious in 
their adherence to traditions, and pompous in their 
almost ceaseless ceremonies. They fasted twice a week, 
on Thursdays, when they said Moses went up into the 
mount, and on Monday, when he descended. As a 
general truth, they were the most haughty exclusives 
in society ; most arrogant in their pretension to supe- 
rior sanctity, and sure to occupy the chief places in 
synagogues and at feasts. Nicodemas was a Phari- 
see ; and from this fact you see how much light is 
thrown upon his* character as a religionist. 



166 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



At the time he is introduced to us, Jerusalem was 
agitated by a great excitement. Jesus of Nazareth, 
who had been heralded as the Messiah by John, the 
fame of whose miracles, the importance of whose 
claims, and the sublimity of whose doctrines, had 
spread through the land, exciting curiosity to its high- 
est pitch, came to make his first official visit to the 
Holy City. The citizens were astounded at his first 
public act. It was a bold and daring one. Surrounded 
by a few poor followers, he had gone into the gorgeous 
temple, and finding it occupied by money-makers — 
men who sold oxen, sheep, and doves for the sacrifices 
— with a scourge of small cords had driven out the 
impious intruders, poured forth the changers' money, 
overthrew their tables, and, with a voice of indignant 
authority, said, " Take these things hence; make not 
my Father's house a house of merchandise." The 
news of this bold deed quickly spread through the 
city ; and our Lord followed up this first movement by 
a succession of miracles which confounded his enemies, 
greatly strengthened his friends, and awakened a gen- 
eral interest in his person and purpose. 

These facts reached the thoughtful Nicodemus, and 
deeply impressed his cultured mind. Perchance while 
passing in Pharisaical dignity along the street, he has 
seen the mildly majestic form of the stranger of Gali- 
lee, and heard that voice which " spake as never man 
spake ;" or, in other circumstances, has met and con- 
versed with persons who themselves have experienced 
his miracle-working energy. It may be that he has 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 167 



long been dissatisfied with the empty forms of his sect, 
and the general hypocrisy of its members. 

It may be that in calm hours of meditation his heart 
has yearned for something purer, nobler and more sat- 
isfactory than its dead traditional dogmas. It is cer- 
tain that he is familiar with the ancient prophecy and 
promise of a Messiah, and since the evidence of the mi- 
raculous power of Jesus has accumulated until it has 
reached the character of positive demonstration, he has 
not been able to resist the impression that it is at least 
possible, in spite of all opposing considerations, sug- 
gested by the poverty of his origin and humility of his 
surroundings, so unlike what the popular expectation 
anticipates, that this is Israel's deliverer. The arrow of 
conviction is in his heart, anxiety in his eye, and trouble 
on his brow. He can not feel the interest he once did 
in the business of the Sanhedrim. The peace of his gor- 
geous home is disturbed. His dreams by night and his 
thoughts by day all point to the ^Xazarene. He is con- 
scious of a strange drawing toward him, until at length 
he feels that he must solve the mystery, ascertain the 
truth. But how shall he do this ? He is not prepared 
to compromise his position by publicly attending the 
ministry of Christ, and after much reflection decides to 
go and see him personally, but it shall be during the 
night, so that if no good comes to himself from the 
interview, at least no harm shall come to his positional 
reputation. At this interesting crisis Nicodemus occu- 
pies a representative position, and while he is preparing 
for an interview with him who embodied not only a 



168 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



divine nature, but the highest type of humanity ever 
seen in this world, allow me to digress for a moment, 
by calling your attention to the personal interviews of 
a few other representative characters, found on the 
pages of history. 

Thus met Montezuma, in whom was vested the bar- 
baric glory of the new, and Cortez, the representative 
of the hoary civilization of the old world. Thus met, 
on Scotland's storied soil, Sir William Wallace, the 
representative of her wild patriotic valor, and Robert 
Bruce, the embodiment of her ancient regal dignity. 
Thus met, in the garden of the Tuilleries, Mirabeau, 
the impersonation of the revolutionary spirit, and Marie 
Antoinette, the representative of fallen royalty. A 
similar meeting occurred, in an Italian dungeon, where 
Galileo was incarcerated, because he had affirmed truths 
which an ignorant and bigoted priesthood had pro- 
nounced heresy. One day a young Englishman, whose 
name is now familiar as a household word throughout 
the civilized world, was admitted to see him. That 
young man was John Milton, and that personal inter- 
view between Italy's martyr to science, and England's 
patriotic scholar must indeed have been thrilling. In 
them the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries met ; the de- 
spair of the one and the hope of the other ; the wasted 
night of the former and the opening morning of the 
latter. But the personal night interview we shall now 
witness between this representative of the dissatisfied 
and inquiring moral element in the universal human 
mind, and that wonderful personage who embodied 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 169 



within himself an interest superior to a thousand Mon- 
tezuinas, or Cortezes, or Wallaces, or Braces, Galileos 
or Miltons, possesses an interest vastly higher and 
more profound than these, or all similar personal inter- 
views recorded on the pages of the world's history ! 

Resume now the thread we dropped. Nicodemus 
is determined to carry into effect his slowly-reached 
purpose. How he has discovered where Jesus tarries, 
in what street, in what building, I do not know: but 
the day has dawned at whose close he is resolved to 
meet and make personal inquiries of the new teacher. 
Slowly pass away the tedious hours, until at length the 
sun has set and night ascends the throne of the world. 
It is April. The air is soft as that of our summer, 
and balmy with the perfume of oriental flowers. The 
Passover moon, which lights pilgrims to their far-off 
homes, now silvers the majestic temple, and flecks with 
deep shadows the white marble palaces of Jerusa- 
lem. 

Gradually the hum of the busy city ceases, and 
places of amusement and business are closed. Wrap- 
ping himself in his costly robe, behold the ruler emerge, 
unattended, from his home, quietly thread his way 
through the silent streets, and proceed toward his des- 
tination. How his heart throbs ! how alert is every 
faculty ! and as he approaches the point where new 
truths of startling magnitude, of momentous, eternal 
interest are to burst upon him, I can not but believe 
that his own nature is intuitively conscious of the 
shadow of their coming. He reaches the dwelling, 



8 



170 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



enters it, and is ushered into a room, "where, as if await- 
ing him, sits alone the great Teacher he has sought, who, 
recognizing him at once, as he did Nathanael before, 
kindly receives him, and with unexpected suavity 
makes him feel at ease in his mysterious presence. 
With the characteristic politeness of a cultured gentle- 
man, Nicoclemus commences the conversation by saying, 
1 i Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher sent from 
God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest 
except God be with him." Mark the immediate reply. 
It may seem strange to you, but rest assured that Jesus 
knows his guest better than he knows himself, and 
therefore he responds, " Verily I say unto thee, except 
a man be born a^ain, he can not see the kingdom of 
God." Surprised, the ruler asks, "How can a man 
be born when he is old ? Can he enter a second time 
into his mother's womb and be born ?" Calmly the 
Saviour repeats, emphasizing what he has said, and add- 
ing thus to it : " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except 
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not 
enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born 
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit 
is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must 
be born again. The w T ind bloweth where it listeth and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence 
it cometh, nor whither it goeth ; so is every one that 
is born of the Spirit." Amazed and perplexed, the 
inquirer exclaims, " How can these things be?" In 
order to humble his Pharisaical pride, Jesus answers, 
"Art thou a master of Israel and know T est not these 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 171 



things ?" And then, after a few words upon the diffi- 
culty of a man in his condition being able to compre- 
hend these spiritualities, he proceeds in the plainest 
possible manner to open thus the gospel, by a reference 
to Jewish history with which Nicodemus was familiar : 
'•'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoso- 
ever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal 
life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his 
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the 
world through him might be saved. He that believeth 
on him is not condemned ; but he that believeth not is 
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the 
name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is 
the condemnation, that light is come into the world, 
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth 
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds 
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, cometh 
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that 
they are wrought in God." 

Such is the whole record of this interview. We 
have no evidence that the inquirer uttered another 
word. The whole gospel scheme was placed before 
him, and his mind seems to have been stunned by the 
force of the aggregated, unexpected truths which came 
rushing in upon him. Silently, thoughtfully, he de- 
parted through the night gloom to his palace, certainly 



172 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



a far wiser man than when he left, and I confidently 
believe that subsequently he became experimentally ac- 
quainted with the truth, which, with even unwonted 
fidelity, our Lord taught him. That belief rests 
mainly on two facts. 

When, more than two years afterward, Christ was 
arraigned as a prisoner before the Sanhedrim, Nicode- 
mus defended him there so earnestly that his coadju- 
tors looked upon him with suspicion, and said, "Art 
thou too a Galilean? see to it." And after the cruci- 
fixion, when Joseph came to take down from the cross 
the dead body of the crucified Lord, the record says 
that Nicodemus came with him, bearing precious spices ; 
and we are left to imagine what must have been his 
thoughts and emotions as he gazed upon that very form 
which sat with him alone on that memorable night, full 
of life and superhuman beauty, now pale, dead, covered 
with ghastly wounds and clotted with gore ! Did he 
not remember the words which had fallen upon his ears 
so strangely, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, so also must the Son of man be lifted up" ? 
And 0, as he stood and gazed upon this literal fulfill- 
ment of these prophetic and now attesting words, must 
not his faith have been confirmed? Surely, he had 
faith in Jesus, else wherefore came he to Calvary when 
the execution was over ? Wherefore came he there bear- 
ing spices to embalm that dead body ? In all pictures 
of the crucifixion he figures conspicuously, and the 
highest art has made him a weeper at the sepulchre. 
If he did not do what he ought to have done, support 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 173 



Christ's cause while he lived, he did do all he could for 
him when dead. From this point we see no more of 
him on the historic page, but I think there is ground 
for confidence that the subsequent events, the resurrec- 
tion from the dead, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and 
the success of Christianity, nourished the seed which 
had been planted in his soul by the divine Hand, and 
that it brought forth fruit abundantly. This historic 
sketch of character suggests the following points, to 
which I ask your attention. 

1. Nicodemas acted the part of a candid, intelli- 
gent ?nan, when he became an inquirer of Christ 
concerning the truth of Christianity. 

In proof of this, consider his position in relation to 
it. Christianity was brought within his reach, and it 
was either true or false. If true, it certainly was of 
the first importance that he should know it, for then it 
would stand related most intimately to his present duty 
and eternal destiny. If false, it was also important 
that he should know that, in order to intelligently re- 
pudiate its claims and successfully oppose its progress. 
How could he certainly know whether it was true or 
false without investigation ? There were many circum- 
stances in his case unfavorable to such an examination. 
Occupying a lofty official position, he had the responsi- 
bilities of hi3 office to meet and all the prejudices of 
his own education to overcome. Moreover, the tempta- 
tion to lay aside the troublesome question by accepting 
the declared judgment concerning it of those who were 
the most learned of his people, and therefore seemingly 



174 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



the most capable of judging correctly, was such as 
would have been too strong for an ordinary mind, in- 
fluenced too by all the power of self-interest. But, 
tell me, would it have been the part of a candid, intel- 
ligent man, to have allowed either the cares of private 
or public business, either his own or the prejudices of 
his associates, either apparent temporary interest, .or 
any other consideration, to have deterred him from 
fairly inquiring into the claims of Christianity? As- 
suredly not. 

Consider further the manner in which he 'prosecuted 
the inquiry. He did not form an opinion concerning 
Christ from what his enemies said of him, nor allow his 
judgment, as to the truth of his doctrines, to be influ- 
enced by the external circumstances surrounding the 
great Teacher— the fewness and poverty of his disciples, 
and the fact that they almost exclusively belonged to 
classes in society far beneath his own positional level. 
His love of justice and fair dealing — a noble develop- 
ment of which was made in the Sanhedrim when, during 
a consultation in regard to the course to be pursued w ith 
reference to Christ, he nobly said, u Doth our law judge 
any man before it hear him and know what he doeth ?" 
— forbade his doing that. Therefore he resolved per- 
sonally to go to Jesus and hear from his own lips a 
statement of his doctrines. He resolved to go at a time 
when he knew he could see him alone, and therefore he 
went " by night." Many have blamed him for this ; - 
but I beg you to observe that our Lord found no fault 
with him on this account, and I submit to you that we 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 175 



ought not to. If it exhibited caution, and perhaps tim- 
idity, still you are to bear in mind that he was merely 
an inquirer, not a believer, and then judge whether it 
was not duty for him to pursue such a course with re- 
gard to what was in his mind an undecided question, 
since, if Christ had proved to be an impostor, the step 
he took would, if it were known, have brought disgrace 
upon himself and his position. K"ow, in this inquiry, 
and the manner of its prosecution, I affirm that he de- 
veloped intelligent and manly wisdom. But alas ! how 
seldom is Christianity thus treated i There are multi- 
tudes of men who never even trouble themselves to in- 
quire whether it is true or not : who, immersed in busi- 
ness during the week, go to church on the Sabbath, but 
still have no settled, intelligent convictions in regard to 
that religion which they treat respectfully, and politely 
neglect. Thus' they treat it with as much absolute indif- 
ference as they would if they knew it were merely an ab- 
straction, an unreality, having no vital relation to their 
interests, and unworthy of their immediate personal at- 
tention. To become a religious inquirer, and take the 
time requisite to prosecute such an inquiry, in their view 
involves neglect of obvious duties, if not a betrayal of 
positive weakness. Is this manly, just, or right ? Can 
it l^e that a system like Christianity, with its grand his- 
tory, its authoritative sanctions, its solemn and moment- 
ous claims, is unworthy of the close attention and care- 
ful investigation of any man ? Assuredly not. Such 
are blinded, deluded by the god of this world. 

There are others who assure us that they have an 



176 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



opinion, that they do not believe in Christianity, that 
they reject the Scriptures. We ask them, Sirs, have 
you ever for yourselves, laying aside all prejudice, can- 
didly and thoroughly examined the evidences of the di- 
vinity of the Scriptures, and the Christianity they teach ? 
Have you ever in your hearts said, " God, I want to 
know the truth ; if the Bible and its religion are true, 
I w ant to know it ; if true, I will receive and obey 
them," and then assiduously availed yourselves of the 
means of knowing ? In ninety-nine cases out of every 
hundred, such persons are compelled to answer in the 
negative. What then is their opinion worth ? What 
is the value of the verdict of a jury who have not heard 
the evidence? Therefore it is that the wide-spread 
skepticism and infidelity of this age are the most flip- 
pant and superficial things the world has ever known. 
They are made up of ignorance, prejudice, and exploded 
argumentations. Their weapons are gibes and jeers. 
Their food is thefaults of Christians. Their clothing is 
the filthy rags of self-righteousness. Tell me, now, is it 
the part of a candid, intelligent man thus to treat that 
religion whose claims have been sealed, not only by the 
blood of martyrs, but by that of the Son of the eternal 
God, which has ever been the herald of good to man- 
kind, the originator and nourisher of private charities 
and noble public reforms ; that religion whose claims to 
divinity have been satisfactory to the profoundest minds 
of the world, to men most eminent in every department 
of science ; that religion which is the safe guide of way- 
ward youth, the strong girder of manhood's energies. 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 177 



the rectifier of wrong, the dispenser of light and love, 
the planter of hope in despairing hearts, the giver of 
joy to the sorrowing, of knowledge to the ignorant, and 
wealth to the poor ; that religion which is the staff of 
tottering age, the softener of dying beds, the illumi- 
nator of the tomb, and the opener of a heaven of immor- 
tal blessedness to poor, sinful mortals ? 

2. In prosecuting his inquiry r , Nicodemus discov- 
ered far more than he a?iticipated. 

Such has been the experience of all real investiga- 
tors in every department of truth. You can not fail to 
remember that their biographies show that when they 
got upon the right track, and pursued it vigilantly, in 
almost every instance greater results were reached than 
they expected. It was while Swartz was making chem- 
ical experiments for a different purpose that he pro- 
duced gunpowder, that terrible instrument of physical 
power, which has blown up kingdoms and exploded 
dynasties. It was merely an inquiry as to why an 
apple fell from its parent bough which led "the star- 
eyed Newton" to the discovery of the existence of that 
great principle which binds together the vast material 
universe. It was while Columbus was merely endeav- 
oring to find out a new route to the Indies that his 
ship came in contact with a new, and before unknown 
world. Thus has it been also in the realm of intellect- 
ual and moral truth. Thus emphatically was it with 
our religious inquirer. 

It is not difficult to see the exact attitude of his 

mind, as exhibited in the brief record of him in the 
8* 



1T8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



gospel. His attention has been arrested by the won- 
derful career of Jesus of Nazareth, and his curiosity is 
thoroughly aroused. He has felt a growing dissatisfac- 
tion with his own condition and position. Maturer ex- 
perience and deeper insight have revealed to him the 
inefficiency and positive emptiness of those hoary dog- 
mas and imposing forms of Judaism which enkindled 
and enchanted his youthful imagination. He is per- 
haps too cautious and non-committal, but he will see 
and hear for himself the new teacher. His motives are 
doubtless mixed. There is a blending of speculative 
curiosity, and perhaps ambition, together with an hon- 
est and determined desire and purpose to find out the 
truth. Observe the cautious and indirect manner in 
which he opens the conversation, its polite and appar- 
ently studied generality, as if he had merely called to 
make some general inquiries, and hold converse with 
our Lord, such as any other man might have deemed 
it a privilege to enjoy. But he has placed himself in 
the right position, he has come to Christ. He is 
alone with the great Refrealer, and unconsciously stands 
where revealings such as he has not dreamed of can 
burst upon him. He has come merely to find out the 
truth concerning Jesus ; he should learn the truth 
about himself. He whose calm, deep eyes are fixed 
upon him, with their majestically mild and searching 
gaze, knows him and his position thoroughly. Mark, 
therefore, the first words ,he utters. They are in no 
way responsive, but putting aside all secondary issues, 
he reveals to the inquirer the necessity of a new birth 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 179 



in order to u $ee" that is, perceive, comprehend and 
enjoy the spiritualities of God's kingdom. Nicodenius 
gives proof of this statement by taking these words in 
a physical sense. But now he is told still more ; for, 
after explaining that the bifth is a spiritual one, Jesus 
adds that in order to '-'enter' his visible kingdom 
and enjoy its immunities, he must be born both of the 
Spirit and " of water ;" that is, he must not only have 
a change of heart wrought by the Spirit, but by bap- 
tism make a public profession, and thus be publicly 
recognized as his disciple. The amazed inquirer learns 
still more that he did not expect, for Jesus revealed to 
him more clearly than he ever did to any other indi- 
vidual, or on any other occasion, the doctrine of atone- 
ment, and of salvation through faith in that product 
and method of the Father's love. It is indeed a re- 
markable fact, that it was during this private interview 
that our adorable Lord uttered to this astonished list- 
ener the most concentrated and yet comprehensive 
statement of the gospel found in the whole Scriptures. 
To him he said, " God so loved the world that he gave 
his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
him might not perish, but have everlasting life.'" 

Thus he honored this inquiring man. And by the 
record of this, it appears to me evident that he designed 
to specially encourage all those who desire to know the 
truth to come directly to him. Just as he said, when 
on the last great day of the feast he stood and cried, 
" If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." 
And, as a matter of fact, an experience similar to that 



180 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



of Nicodemus has been realized by all those, who have 
ever gone to Jesus, and sought honestly and earnestly 
to know the truth — they have learned more than they 
anticipated. They may have commenced, as he did, with 
but little consciousness of spiritual need and knowledge 
of spiritual truth ; but, as they sought by faith, they 
found; as they knocked, it was opened unta them. Tell 
me, Christian friend, was not this your experience ? 
You may have commenced seeking the Lord with a 
comparatively slight sense of your spiritual necessities, 
a poor apprehension of the infinitude of divine love, 
and of the wondrous adaptation of the gospel to your 
exigencies. But as you sought by prayer and study 
of the " word of Christ," did you not discover your- 
self to be a more guilty, helpless sinner than you had 
supposed ? Did you not discover the nature and rea- 
sonableness of those personal prerequisites to the com- 
prehension and enjoyment of the spiritualities of Chris- 
tianity, which before seemed almost as strange to you 
as they did to Mcodemus ? Did you not discover a won- 
drousness in the grace of God, a beauty and glory in 
the person and work of Christ, an efficacy in his atone- 
ment, a reality and power in the work of the Holy 
Spirit, and a blessedness in Christianity of which you 
had not dreamed ? Could you not say, with Sheba's 
queen, " the half was not told me ? ,; So, friends, shall 
it be with all of you, if candidly and honestly you will 
seek of Christ to know yourselves, your necessities, du- 
ties and privileges. Be not afraid to go, by humble 
prayer, to the omnipresent Jesus. He invites you to 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 181 



come. Ho awaits your coming. The Spirit and the 
Bride say " Come." Go, then, as this inquirer did — 
go alone to Jesus, and you shall learn the truth ; yea, 
you shall be amazed, as he was, at the magnitude and 
grandeur of the spiritual revealings which shall burst 
upon you. 

3. The difficulty of comprehending the nature and 
necessity of regeneration which Nicodemus felt^ is the 
common experience, of men. 

Remember that he was a ruler, a gentleman, and a 
scholar ; a man of lofty and pure character ; doubtless, 
amiable, kind, and benevolent. History records no blot 
as resting on his reputation. Indeed his standard of 
mere moral character was higher, than that which pre- 
vailed either in his class or nation. In this regard he 
was above reproach. Even Christianity, perhaps, could 
have made no very important change in his exterior life. 
In this regard, the all-knowing Christ uttered no breath 
of condemnation. But in true fidelity he at once in- 
formed him, that whatever might be his intellectul cul- 
ture or moral integrity, he could not " see the kingdom 
of heaven" unless he was " born again." And how 
the immediate reply of the inquirer demonstrated the 
truth, Jesus had just uttered ! He talks about a natu- 
ral birth, and when his mistake is corrected, exclaims, 
" How can these things be?" Does not this remind 
you, of what you have often heard from intelligent 
and worthy persons ? Have you not heard them say ) 
'•What is this new birth of which you are for ever 
talking? We do not understand it." Such speak 



182 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



the truth. They do not understand regeneration, be- 
cause, like a large class of other facts, it can only be 
known by experience. It is a change of heart, pro- 
ducing a change of will and conduct. How many 
changes of the body can only thus be known ! — changes 
from youth to age, from sickness to health and health 
to sickness, from life to death. How many intellectual 
changes can only thus be known ! Oh, in the inward 
world of our souls — that world within the vail of flesh, 
that sanctum sanctorum of humanity — how many reali- 
zations there are, which can be known only to those 
who experience them ! Ought it then to be a matter 
of surprise that this most radical and permanent of all 
changes should be a thing known only through a per- 
sonal experience ? But while the nature of regenera- 
tion can only thus be known, its reality is demonstrable, 
as are other classes of facts, by its effects. How do you 
know that there is such a thing as wind ? You never 
saw it ; but you have seen its power exerted, and on 
that account you are satisfied in regard to its existence. 
Hence Jesus said, u The wind bloweth where it listeth, 
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh or whither it goeth : so is every one 
that is born of the Spirit." 

Moreover, there was one word spoken by the great 
Teacher on this occasion which must have grated harshly 
on the ear of this man — the little word u must" Nico- 
demus was not accustomed to be thus addressed, and his 
face doubtless flushed when he heard it. But calmly 
and firmly Jesus repeated, c: Marvel not that I said 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 183 



unto thee. Ye must be born again.*' In the pride of 
their hearts, men dislike this language now, as much as 
Nicodemus did then. The very form is obnoxious. It 
is so authoritative, imperative. It does not leave the 
matter optional. It does not merely advise that a 
change of heart is desirable, and that we would do well 
to seek it. Nay, but with the earnestness of a God, and 
the solemnity of eternity, the Revealer of truth declares 
to all, whatever may be their position or character, 
" Ye must be born again.'' 

But observe in order to 'what he told Nicodemus this 
change was essential. He did not say it was essential 
in order to secure worldly good, 1 nor to a form of re- 
ligion, but in order to '-see ,; and '-enter" his kingdom 
on earth, and secure an interest in the kingdom of 
heaven. He taught that if there is no change of heart 
now, there will be no true religion here or bliss here- 
after. Friends, does this appear to you to be an arbi- 
trary arrangement ? If it does, you are mistaken. It 
is a great moral necessity. It could not, from the na- 
ture of things, be otherwise. "How can two walk 
together except they be agreed ?" How can you ]ove 
a holy God while you love and cherish sin? How 
can you at the same time love the world, and the world- 
crucifying Christ ? How can you appreciate or take 
delight in exercises for which you have no relish ? 
How can you be a loyal subject of King Jesus while 
in rebellion against him ? How can you enjoy the 
companionship of regenerate souls with whom you have 
no affinity? Then think of the great hereafter — of 



184 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



heaven. How sweet is that word ! It is the condensed 
expression of beauty, bliss, glory. All want to go 
thither at last. But do you know that heaven is a 
perfectly holy world, a purely religious place, a vast 
temple of incessant worship ? Do you know that all 
its inhabitants from earth are regenerated people, its 
joys are the joys of holiness, its songs are the praises 
of redeeming love, its activities are the sweet obedience 
of loving hearts ? Tell your own conscience honestly, 
if you were taken there just as you are, without a 
thorough change of your affections, would not its very 
air be oppressive, its services tedious, its employments 
irksome ? Could you sing its songs ? Could you 
shout praises unto him whom you have despised on 
earth ? Verily not ! That polluted heart within you 
would writhe amidst the blaze of infinite purity, and 
cry out, " This is not my place : I am a stranger to 
all these persons and enjoyments ; I am not adapted to 
them." Yea ! we may all sing in mournfully solemn 
tones, 

" Had I a throne above the rest, 

Where angels and archangels dwell, 
One sin unslain within my breast 
Would turn that heaven to hell." 

Ah ! then the loving, faithful Saviour utters a grand 
moral necessity when he says to us, " Ye must be born 
again \" God give you grace to see it, feel it. God 
grant that you may now be impressed as you have 
never been before with this fact, so big with everlasting 
interest; that whatever other experiences you may 



THE RELIGIOUS INQUIRER. 185 



have of joy or sorrow, of prosperity or adversity, you 
must, must have this. God grant that the words, "Ye 
must be born again,"' may ring in your ears and toll 
their solemn cadences through every avenue of your 
being until you cry out, " Holy Spirit! change my 
heart. Work thy work of grace in me/"' Then it shall 
be done, and thou shalt stand up regenerated, re- 
deemed, disenthralled, in all the dignity and bliss of 
" a new creature in Christ Jesus." 



VIII. 



® I 



t 



a . 



ANANIAS, 



" Oh ! unblest falsehood, mother of all evil, 
Thou art the misery making demon of the world. 
* * # * * 

Let falsehood be a stranger to thy lips ; 
Shame on the policy that first began 
To tamper with the heart, to hide its thoughts ! 
And doubly shame on that inglorious tongue 
That sold its honesty and. told a lie." 



It is pleasant to discuss subjects which are adapted 
to excite emotional interest. Far different is the task 
before me now. I am about to treat of one which it 
is almost impossible should afford you pleasure, in the 
ordinary acceptation of the term : but with this fact dis- 
tinctly before me my duty is clear. 

Do we not. however, make too much of this matter 
of enjoyment ? Does that which gives mere pleasure 
always benefit us most? Is what we most enjoy 
always what we most need ? Does he who makes us 
temporarily most happy always do us the most good ? 
Is the human mind in its noblest, highest mood, when 
merely experiencing gratification ? Did you ever no- 
tice that the Scriptures never represent God as merely 
enjoying himself, but as possessed of every attribute 



190 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



of goodness in an infinite degree, and constantly exer- 
cising those attributes for the well-being of his uni- 
verse ? and is not the human mind in its highest con- 
dition of excellence when in nearest approximation to 
the divine ? As with the body, there are times when 
that which is unpleasant to the taste and produces se- 
vere pain, works greater positive good, lays a founda- 
tion for higher, more permanent enjoyment, than does 
the most delicious fare : so is it with our souls ; there 
are periods when a contemplation of unpalatable but 
important subjects, subjects relating to our own defi- 
ciencies or sins, or the vices prevailing in community, 
which, though they may not afford immediate pleasure, 
still, in the end, do greater good, are better adapted to 
elevate the tone of our character and rectify our con- 
duct, than other themes which are by far more pleas- 
urable in themselves. 

You will see the appropriateness of what I have said, 
when I announce as my theme, Ananias, the Liar. 

In discussing this I shall have much to say about the 
vice of which this man was guilty, and with which his 
name is associated in the sacred history. You will 
pardon me, if pardon is needed, if I call this by its 
real name. I shall not choose mild words; I shall 
not call it by the gentle terms, " prevarication," " de- 
parture from the truth," or even '-falsehood-making," 
but style it exactly what it is, -'lying!" Our busi- 
ness, however, at the outset, is with this man, and the 
historical facts concerning him which the Bible has 
preserved for our benefit. 



THE LIAR. 191 



It falls in with a collateral object of these lectures to 
notice the period at which he lived, and the circum- 
stances under which he appears in the connections of 
the sacred narrative. 

The bloody tragedy of Calvary had been enacted. 
The resurrection from Joseph's new tomb had trans- 
pired on the third, the appointed day. Forty days 
afterwards, his earthly work being consummated, our 
Lord ascended from Olivet's summit in a cloud-chariot 
to heaven, bearing with him in his glorified body the 
scars of the atoning sacrifice. Ten days after that oc- 
curred the Pentecostal descent of the Holy Ghost upon 
the gathered and waiting disciples. At this time Jeru- 
salem was full of strangers, There were Parthians 
and Medes and Elamites. and dwellers in Mesopotamia, 
Judea, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Lybia, 
Rome, Crete, and Arabia. These were Jews and pros- 
elytes dwelling in those regions who had come to attend 
the great annual feast of the Pentecost. Public and 
private houses were filled with these strangers. Amazed 
indeed were they at hearing the apostles, whom they 
knew to be Galileans, preach to them in their own va- 
ried languages. Some, astonished, exclaimed, "What 
meaneth this ?" Others mocked, and said, " These men 
are full of new wine.''" A vast crowd collected around 
them, and Peter — the very man who in an evil hour 
had thrice denied his Lord, but who was now the bold 
and dauntless preacher — heedless of their ridicule, arose 
before that mighty multitude and proclaimed to them a 
crucified and risen Christ, charged upon them the guilt 



192 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



of his death, and proffered forgiveness through repent- 
ance. When his sermon was concluded, a murmur, 
slight at first, but gradually growing louder and louder, 
arose from every part of the vast audience. At length 
it burst forth in the cry, " Men and brethren, what 
shall we do ! ! !" Then Peter, with the glow of holy 
triumph on his face, with a voice like a trumpet, re- 
sponded, " Eepent and be baptized, every one of you, 
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, 
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The 
result of that sermon was, as you may remember, that 
three thousand men and women were converted and 
baptized that very day, and fear fell on every soul. 

Now look at the circumstances. From embracing 
about six hundred, the Christian church in a single day 
came to number nearly four thousand souls, and sub- 
sequently received additions daily to its membership. 
According to a custom of the time, at great feasts in 
Jerusalem, like the one mentioned, there was always 
somewhat of a community of goods. No Jew stranger 
hired houses or beds, or household utensils ; but these 
were freely offered by the inhabitants, as well as water 
provided for him at the public expense. But you 
can conceive how natural it was, from the deadly hos- 
tility of the city authorities to Christianity, for them 
to withdraw all hospitality from its converts. Such 
was the case. These were, consequently, thrown en- 
tirely upon their own resources. What, then, was to 
become of these thousands of converts, many of whom 
were doubtless very poor and far from their own homes ? 



THE LIAR. 193 



With a truly Christian spirit, " those who had them 
sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all 
as every roan had need.' J 

In view of this fact many have asked whether Chris- 
tianity doos not always require a community of property 
in Christian societies r~ The Shakers affirm that it 
does. But we deny their affirmation for the following 
Jte ttgis. First i neither Christ nor his apostles ever 
esflWlisbcd such an arrangement. It was not enjoined 
in this case. It was but the outburst of Christian lib- 
erality to meet an emergency. Second, no primitive 
Christian society was organized on such a basis. It 
was practiced in no place, at no time but this. Third, 
it would be impracticable as a universal custom. Xor 
does Christianity contemplate such a merging of indi- 
vidual and social interests as such an arrangement in- 
volves, adapted as it is to destroy individual enterprise 
and family organizations. Still Christianity does, both 
by precept and example, enforce upon those who have 
property the duty of assisting any of their brethren 
who may be in circumstances of need. 

Recurring again to the circumstances in which we 
find our representative man, we learn that Ci very many 
having sold their possessions, gave the money to the 
apostles, * ; who with it supplied the wants of the needy 
disciples. Of all of those donors, the names of two 
only are recorded — one is Joses, surnamed Barnabas ; 
the other is Ananias. 

You have now before you the historical circum- 
stances surrounding our representative man. Let us 

9 



194 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



next examine ichat is recorded of him. The record 
is brief. Immediately preceding it the liberal, honest 
conduct of Barnabas is described, who, " having land, 
sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apos- 
tles' feet.' 7 Then, as if to show, that there were bad 
as well as good men engaged in tins service, the record 
proceeds from this account of Barnabas with an omin- 
ous "But" It says, "But a certain man, naipect 
Ananias, (it does not tell where lie lived, nor wnaST 
his business was) and Sapphira, his wife, sold a pos- 
session and kept back part of the price, his wife also 
being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid 
it at the apostles' feet." Imagine, now, this man as 
having turned his possessions into money, and accord- 
ing to an agreement with his wife, keeping back a part 
of the sum, and bringing only the balance, while pro- 
Jessing to bring all. He has laid this before the apos- 
tles, and waits complacently to receive their benedic- 
tion. Look at him ! What can be the matter ? Why 
does he not gaze manfully up into their faces? Why 
does his cheek grow pale ? What means that trembling 
of his whole frame ? Something surely is wrong. See 
how the eagle eye of Peter is fixed upon him, seeming 
to pierce him through and through ! ! ! How he quails 
under that searching gaze ! Surely conscious innocence 
never writhes thus under either the eye of man or God ; 
conscious guilt does under both. Hark ! Peter speaks. 
His tones are low, deep, awful. His face betokens 
amazement and an almost terrible solemnity as he says : 
" Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to 



THE LIAR. 195 



the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of 
the land ? While it remained -was it not thine own ? and 
after it was sold was it not in thine own power ? Why 
hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?'* Then 
I see him lift his hand, and I hear in his solemn voice 
the knell-tone of hopeless doom as he adds. " Ananias., 
thou hast not lied unto men hut unto God!" Look now 
at the convicted liar. What agony his countenance 
betrays ! How he trembles ! Ah ! he falls heavily 
to the earth. His body moves not. He is dead. 
While the beholders quake with fear, the young men. 
whose business it is to perform various offices at the 
assemblings of Christians, lift up the corpse, fold its 
flowing robe around it, carry it out, and as the Jews 
immediately interred dead bodies when not to be em- 
balmed, they bury it. Three hours afterwards, his 
wife, not knowing what had transpired, came in, and, 
being questioned, told the same lie, met the same fate, 
and the same young men who, acting as bearers, had 
borne her husband to the grave, now carry and lay her 
by his side in a dishonored and premature sepulchre. 

This brief but really terrible narrative is rich in 
practical suggestions. It will be profitable for us to 
candidly consider these. You observe the strange fact 
that this single passage in this man^s history is all 
that is recorded of him. So that God has preserved 
for the world, through all time, this record of a lie. and 
its consequences. Can any one doubt, therefore, the 
propriety of my calling him Ananias, the Liar ? Can 
any one doubt that he is a representative man ? or that 



196 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



God designed that this history should illustrate the fear- 
ful nature of that vice, which is perhaps the most prev- 
alent of all vices, found in all classes of society, in all 
degrees of civilization, ramifying every department of 
life, from blooming youth to decrepid age ? 

1. We here see developed what constitutes the essen- 
tial nature of a lie. 

Where is the lie in this transaction ? There are cer- 
tainly points in it of themselves commendable, such as 
his apparent sympathy for the needy, which led him to 
turn his property into cash for the ostensible purpose 
of assisting them, and bringing the money to the apos- 
tles to be thus distributed. There was no necessity laid 
upon him to do either. No apostolic command had 
required it. The property was his own. He had a 
right to do with it what he pleased. After the sale ; 
he need not to have laid a farthing of the proceeds at 
the " apostles' feet." But when he professed to bring 
all of the purchase money, while bringing only a part 
(and that probably a very small portion), he deliber- 
ately attempted deception, and that deliberate intention 
and attempt to deceive constituted the lie. This ever 
constitutes lying, an intention and attempt to deceive. 
What is truth ? What is moral truth ? It consists in 
an honest intention and endeavor to convey to another 
the conception of a fact precisely as it exists in our own 
minds. What is physical truth? It consists In an 
attempt to convey to another the conception of a fact as 
it actually exists. These do not always coincide. You 
may innocently have obtained an incorrect conception 



TIIE LIAR. 197 



of a fact, and honestly endeavored to convey it to an- 
other as it existed in your mind. In that case there 
would be a moral truth and a physical untruth, for you 
honestly told it as you understood it ; you did not in- 
tend to deceive, and yet the thing was not really as you 
represented it. So, conversely, there may be a moral 
falsehood in the statement of a literal truth, as when 
you tell the truth, relate a thing as it really is, while 
you suppose it to be different and intend to deceive. 
In such a case, although you told the literal truth, not 
knowing it to be such, and intending to deceive, you 
would be guilty of falsehood. Pure truth is commu- 
nicated only when, having a correct conception of a 
fact, you intentionally communicated it to another 
precisely as it exists in your mind. Just as the law 
has it, "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth." Every thing different from this, con- 
taining what this record ascribes to Ananias, intention 
and the attempt to deceive, is lying. It was on this 
account that Peter said to him, " Thou hast lied." 

2. In the case of Ananias we have developed not 
only the nature of a lie, but also one form of lying. 

It is astonishing to reflect upon the many forms in 
which lies are told. I do not know, however, that it 
ought to astonish us, for as truth appears in ten thou- 
sand forms of beauty and usefulness, so we might ex- 
pect that the opposite should be as varied in its mani- 
festations as are the developments of universal deprav- 
ity. Hearken to the list which the most thorough writer 
upon the subject has made out. I refer to " Mrs. Opie's 



198 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Illustrations of Lying," a book which I recommend as 
worthy of a place in every family library. She de- 
scribes the whole subject with much ability, and pre- 
sents touching illustrations of every form of this vice. 
The following is the catalogue she has prepared : 

1. Lies of Vanity — which include all those false ex- 
pressions by which persons attempt to deceive others in 
regard to what administers to their own vanity. 

2. Lies of Flattery — which include all those efforts, 
by deceptive phrases, to administer to the vanity of 
others. 

3. Lies of Convenience — which include all that class 
of falsehoods which are told to avoid being disturbed, or 
having our convenience in any way infringed upon. 

4. Lies of Interest — which include all false represen- 
tations made to promote selfish aggrandizement. 

5. Lies of Fear — which include all false expressions 
uttered through lack of moral courage to tell the truth, 
through fear of wounding the feelings of others, or 
bringing upon ourselves the legitimate consequences of 
our actions. 

6. Lies of Malignity — which include those expres- 
sions willfully intended to injure the feelings or repu- 
tation of others : all that large class included under the 
general terms of " backbiting," " insinuations," and 
other forms of detraction. 

7. Lies of Benevolence — which include all falsehoods 
told to promote good objects; and all deceptive with- 
holding of the truth, when it is supposed that such de- 
ception will do good. 



THE LIAR. 199 



8. Lies of Wantonness— which include all those which 
are told through a foolish contempt of the truth, and a 
depraved fondness for inventing falsehoods. 

9. Practical Lies — thai is, not spoken, but acted out 
falsehoods. 

Under this last classification we must place the sin 
of Ananias. Bear in mind that the record does not 
represent him as having uttered a single word. He 
did not say. " I give to you. apostles, all the pro- 
ceeds of my property for the benefit of the poor;" 
that would have been an outspoken lie. But what 
he had not the courage to say, he did ; the decep- 
tion which he dared not put in words, he acted. Thus 
it is with us ; when we intend by our conduct to produce 
false impressions, we are guilty of falsehood as really as 
he was. 

Now, in regard to this vice, the prominent forms of 
whose development we have thus indicated, there are 
several astonishing facts to be noticed ; such as its al- 
most universal prevalence in some form, and the num- 
ber and variety of excuses and palliations which are 
made for it, and mild names which are appended to it, 
and the wonderful skill developed in graduating its 
moral character. Hence we hear of " innocent, harm- 
less" lies, "'white" lies, " little, unimportant" false- 
hoods, when the fact is, that if there be the essentiality 
of a lie in a given transaction at all, then you might as 
well talk of innocent harmless sin, white, moral black- 
ness, or little, unimportant guilt, as to apply these 
deceptive phrases to it. Another astounding fact in 



200 EEPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



regard to this matter is, that while, as I shall show 
you, the Bible abounds with denunciations against it, 
the pulpit is so silent in regard to it. I confess, to my 
mortification, when, after looking through my own ser- 
mons, upon almost every subject within the range of 
ministerial discussion, I could not find a single discourse 
upon this sin, nor could I remember ever to have made 
it a distinct topic of discussion. And I suppose that 
what is true of my ministry in this regard is also true of 
that of the mass of my brethren. Why is this ? Why this 
apathy ?- — this compromise with a vice more prevalent 
than profanity, licentiousness, intemperance, or theft, and 
yet belonging to the same class of immoralities ? Can 
this be accounted for except on the theory that we have 
not, for some cause, realized its injuriousness and guilt? 
Had we been duly impressed with these, we could not 
have remained silent. I submit to you that the evi- 
dence is clear that the God of truth has preserved this 
record of a lie and its consequences on the sacred page, 
that it might aid us in obtaining proper conceptions of 
the nature and guilt of this sin. I firmly believe that 
he did. Let us pass then to consider 

3. The guilt of lying, both as taught and sug- 
gested by this brief record of our representative man. 

Doubtless there was a special peculiarity attending 
this case not found in most others, but the essentialities 
of all lying are ever the same. That peculiarity is in- 
dicated by the expression, u Why hath Satan filled thy 
heart to lie to the Holy Ghost V To understand this, 
you must remember that the apostles were acting under 



THE LIAR. 201 



the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. Ananias 
knew this, and yet he attempted to deceive them while 
acting under that inspiration, and therefore Peter said 
that he had " lied unto the Holy Ghost/ 7 whom, you 
will observe, the apostle calls " God," for he said " Thou 
hast not lied unto men, but unto God." Peter was a 
Trinitarian you perceive, for he thus recognized the 
divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit, and told 
this man that the chief guilt of his crime was found in 
the fact of its criminality in the sight of God. All 
the peculiarity, therefore, of the lie of Ananias, con- 
sisted in the fact that it w T as specially against the Holy 
Ghost, under w r hose divine direction the apostles were 
acting. But all lies are sins against God, and consider, 
I pray you, what every such sin is in its direct rela- 
tions to him. 

1. It is a violation of the law of veracity ; that 
law ivhich demands perfect truthfulness from every 
being in the universe. 

This forbids the utterance of what is known to be 
false, the utterance of what we do not know to be true 
as truth ; the utterance of what may be true in such a 
way as to give false impressions, by exaggerating some 
circumstances and extenuating others, through which 
method a half truth becomes a whole lie. Therefore, 
everv falsehood is a violation of this law, rebellion 

a/ J 

against this righteous enactment of Heaven, and a blow 
at the moral government of God. 

2. Moreover, it is in direct violation of express 
commands of God. 



202 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



I quote you some of these. Exodus, xx. 6 : " Thou 
shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor ;" but 
every falsehood concerning a being is bearing false wit- 
ness against him. Exodus, xix. 11 : "Ye shall not lie 
one to another." Proverbs, vi. 16 : " Keep thy tongue 
from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile ;" vi. 
19: "The Lord hates a false witness that speaketh 
lies ;" xii. 22 : " Lying lips are an abomination to the 
Lord." Of the prince of all evil our Saviour said, 
" The devil is a liar and the father of it." Ephesians, 
iv. 25: "Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every 
one truth to his neighbor." Colossians, iii. 9 : " Lie 
not one to another." In the description given by the 
ascended Lord of the spirit world, as recorded in the 
last chapter in the Bible, we read these emphatic 
words: "Blessed are they who do his command- 
ments, that they may have right to the tree of life and 
enter in through the gates into the city : for without 
are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and mur- 
derers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and makeih 
a lie." 

3. Behold its guilt as developed in its terribly 
mischievous results. I refer not now to its punish- 
ment but to its legitimate consequences. What tongue 
shall tell, what pen shall w T rite, what imagination pic- 
ture these ? Think you not, on the theory that up to 
this time Ananias had been an honest man, a shudder 
shook his moral nature when he deliberately purposed 
this falsehood ? How its commission degraded every 
element of his nature, and covered him with shame ! 



THE LIAR. 203 



And after the habit of falsifying has once been formed 
in any mind, then whatever of purity or beauty existed 
there before is gone. The moral sensibilities are 
blunted, the heart is hardened, the entire nature de- 
based, and the individual appears contemptible in the 
sight of every honest man and woman. Tell me, are 
there many worse things that can be affirmed of a man 
or woman than to say of him "he is a liar,'' of her 
" she is a lying woman ?" When this is done, not by 
the poisoned breath of private slander, but upon proof 
clear and indisputable, do you not avoid such persons ? 
Do you not banish them from the sacred realm of so- 
cial intercourse? Is it not one of the greatest insults 
which you can offer a true man to call him a liar ? 
This vice is a clear exponent of character. Whoever 
will deliberately lie is essentially, and, it is to be feared, 
permanently ruined. Lord Bacon quotes Montague as 
having said, " If it be well weighed to say a man lies, 
it is as much as to say that he is a bravado toward God 
and a coward toward man. For the liar insults God 
and crouches to man."' Aristotle was once asked, 
" What does a man gain by telling falsehoods?*' He 
replied, " Not to be credited when he speaks the 
truth.' 7 

Think of its results in families and communities. 
What distrust, wrath, dissension, quarrels, and bitter- 
ness it engenders ! How it changes friends to enemies, 
introduces broils and altercations into circles of busi- 
ness, politics, and religion ; tears down the fair fame of 
its objects ; blasts hopes and breaks hearts : yea, some- 



204 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



times pursues to the death ! No wonder that a poet 
exclaims, 

" Oh I unblest falsehood, mother of all evil, 
Thou art the misery making demon of the world." 

4. Its guilt is seen in the penalties which God's 
moral government has and will inflict upon 
liars. 

For the last time look at this record. The wicked 
design formed by Ananias and Sapphira, their delib- 
erate purpose to lie, is consummated. What follows ? 
Both are detected, as all liars are sure to be sooner or 
later. Both are covered with shame. Was this all ? 
Nay, nay, one after the other, with the paltry price of 
the lie in their hands, they are stricken by the retrib- 
utive power of God, fall dead at the apostles' feet, 
their bodies borne away to an ignominious grave, and 
their names consigned to eternal infamy. This was an 
extraordinary case, you may say, and met an extraordi- 
nary punishment. I admit it, but affirm that authentic 
history furnishes not a few instances of similar facts, 
where persons have met a similar fate in the very act 
of committing this sin. Consider attentively, I beseech 
you, the following developments of the penalty which a 
righteous God has annexed to this violation of his law. 
Psalm lxiii. 11 : " The mouth of them that speak lies 
shall be stopped.' 7 Proverbs, vi. 13 : " These are six 
things the Lord doth hate : yea, seven are an abomina- 
tion to him : a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that 
shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imag- 



THE LIAR. 205 



inations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a 
false witness that speaketh lies, and him that soweth 
discord among brethren." Proverbs, xix. 25 : " The 
lip of truth shall be established for ever : but a lying 
tongue is but for a moment : lying lips are an abomina- 
tion to the Lord, but they that deal truly are his de- 
light. He that speaketh lies shall not escape.' ; In 
regard to the final doom of all who persist in the com- 
mission of this sin one passage in the New Testament 
will suffice. It is indeed terrible. Observe, I pray 
you, the characters with whom liars are classified, and 
the certainty and fearfulness of their fate. Revelations, 
xxi. 8 : " The fearful and unbelieving, the abominable, 
and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and 
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake 
that burneth with fire and brimstone ; which is the 
second death." 

I close this lecture with an appeal to two classes of 
persons. 

1. To parents. I beseech you to cultivate a love of 
truth and the hatred of a lie, as an essential part of 
the home education of your children. Such education 
is the earliest and most influential of all the instruction 
your children shall ever receive. It moulds their char- 
acters and shapes their destiny. And if you can, by 
the blessing of God, which is both proffered and prom- 
ised to you, succeed in making them truthful, you thus 
lay broad and deep the foundation of a pure and lofty 
character. Why have the pyramids of Egypt with- 
stood the assaults of centuries ? Chiefly because of the 



206 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



breadth and strength of their bases. And so, also, 
shall our children acquire characters able to withstand 
all the stormy perils of life, if their bases shall be 
formed of unwavering truthfulness. To accomplish 
this we must be perfectly truthful ourselves. If Ave 
are ever careless in this regard, our children certainly 
will follow our example. As an aid in this momentous 
work tell them of the beauty of truth, the ugliness of 
falsehood ; the blessedness of the former and the certain 
wretchedness of the latter ; the eternal life-promises of 
God connected with the one and the eternal death-doom 
he has inevitably associated with the other. Tell them 
this story of Ananias and Sapphira. Tell them that the 
Almighty Jehovah, their Father in heaven, "loves 
children who will not lie. 7 ' 

Furthermore, we must encourage them to tell the 
truth. Even w T hen they have done wrong, do not by 
severity drive them into falsehood, by endeavors to con- 
ceal it. Nay, encourage them to confide in you, and be 
willing to acknowledge the whole truth. forgive, 
cheerfully forgive any childish folly, or even any more 
serious wrong doing, upon an honest confession of it. 
Let your little ones know you will do it. Let them see 
that no offense in your sight can approximate the mean- 
ness and guiltiness of lying. 0, parents ! it is better 
by far to have " children that will not lie*' than to have 
pretty children or smart children. Such will assuredly 
be sources of comfort and consolation to your future 
years, blessings to society and to the world. God help 
us in this matter, for, as a general truth, they will be 



THE LIAR. 207 



just what our example and discipline are adapted to 
make them. 

2. I appeal finally to all young people, whose char- 
acters are being formed, who have yet reputations to 
make. Friends, I beseech you, as one of the most im- 
portant of all possible acquirements, study to attain 
a deep and abiding appreciation of the beauty of truth- 
fulness and the loathsomeness of falsehood, the virtue of 
the former and the wickedness of the latter. I assure 
you that even a well-grounded suspicion that you will 
lie will undermine the confidence of all the good in you. 
I assure you, that the possession of no single or com- 
bined qualifications will secure for you such universal 
respect, as the knowledge that your veracity is impreg- 
nable. Are you a clerk, and does your employer re- 
quire you to swerve from the truth ? Look him steadily 
in the face, and tell him that if he would give you his 
whole stock of goods you can not lie. If he discharges 
you, and it is known that a poor young man has lost 
his situation because of his fidelity to truth, a hundred 
true men will interest themselves in your behalf, while 
God shall say, " Well done, noble youth. " Should you 
be pursued by detractive opposition, you may exclaim, 

" Put up your paltry weapons, 
They edgeless are to him who fears them not ; 
Rocks have been shaken from their solid base, 
But what shall move a firm and truthful mind?" 

I charge you, friends, that no vice sooner stupefies 
the conscience than this. He who tells one falsehood 



208 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



is in great danger of becoming an habitual liar, and an 
habitual liar soon loses all moral discrimination. One 
lie is a fearful sin in itself, but it rarely ever stands 
alone — it requires many others to prop it up, and soon 
involves in unexpected guilt. I assure you, that with 
the habit of stern, uncompromising truthfulness, you 
shall have a peaceful conscience, the respect and love 
of your fellow-men, and the unfailing favor of the God 
of truth ; but that with untruthfulness in any of its 
varied forms, you shall have a hardened heart, a be- 
numbed moral nature, the suspicion and distrust of all 
the good, the wrath of the Almighty, and, in the end, 
" shame and everlasting contempt." 



IX. 



f>1?£ Ulattlp Ib&cait- 



STEPHEN, 

C I] t III a r t ji r-S ra t o it. 



" When persecution's torrent-blaze 

"Wraps the unshrinking martyrs head ; 
When fade all earthly flowers and bays: 

When summer friends are gone and fled ; 
Is he alone in that dark hour 
Who owns the Lord of love and power ? 

u Or waves there not around his brow 
A wand no human arm may wield ? 
Fraught with a spell no angels know, 
His steps to guide, his soul to shield ?" 

" Foremost and nearest to his throne, 
By perfect robes of triumph known, 
And likest him in look and tone, 

The holy Stephen kneels/' 



There is one class of men whose connection with 
any enterprise gives to it the highest sanction, and helps 
more to spread and perpetuate its fame than perhaps 
any thing else. To what class, think you. do I refer ? 
Is it composed of the rich or the learned ? Of men of 
lofty positional eminence, statesmen, artists, poets or 
conquerors ? No, It consists of martyrs — men who 
have proved their devotion to the cause they espoused 
by dying for it. In all ages and lands, amid all stages 
of civilization, from the rudest barbarism to the highest 



212 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



refinement, the memory of martyrs has been held sacred, 
and real and traditional relics of their careers preserved 
with the greatest care. Indeed, the heroic element 
developed in such constancy and fortitude as they man- 
ifest naturally commands the admiration of their ene- 
mies and the profoundest love of their friends. Science 
has her list of martyrs, and, to-day, points with honest 
pride to the monuments which she has erected to keep 
their fame fresh in the heart of the world. Liberty 
has her long, long list of martyrs, wdiose names were 
not born to die — whose dust is found wherever she 
has struggled with her foes ; and in the wreath which 
a grateful humanity has twined about her brow, the 
most imperishable flowers are the ones which have 
been gathered from the cherished graves of those, w 7 ho 
have freely offered up their lives on her hallowed al- 
tars. Christianity, too, has her martyrs innumerable, 
yet glorious, whose remains are frozen in the ice of the 
North, mouldering in the sands of the South, beneath 
the whispering leaves of western forests, and beside the 
crumbling ruins of eastern antiquity; yea, in cold, damp 
dungeons, on bleak, desolate mountains, and in wild 
Asiatic jungles ; while far down in ocean depths their 
white bones glitter through tangled sea-weeds. These 
form the crown of her earthly glory. These are the 
richest jewels in her earthly diadem. True, she has 
been able to preserve the names of comparatively few 
of them, and therefore she sings, 

" The kings of old have shrine and tomb 
In many a minster's haughty gloom ; 






THE MARTYR-DEACON. 213 



And, green, along the ocean's side 
The mounds arise where heroes died ; 
But show me, en thy flowery breast, 
Earth, where my nameless martyrs rest ! 
They sleep in secret, but their sod, 
Unknown to man, is marked of God." 



Of this catalogue I can not tell you who is the last ; 
nay, at this moment, crushed by despotic power, or 
murdered by lawless violence, some martyr man or 
woman may be breathing out their final breath. But 
I can tell you whose name, since the organization of 
the Christian church, stands first ; I can tell you w r ho, 
from that point, stands the foremost of this mighty 
army of martyrs. It is the representative man whose 
history and character form the subject of our present 
meditation. 

To understand the history and character of this first 
Christian martyr, it will be necessary for us to review 
the record of the period in which he lived. 

The effect of the retributive death of Ananias and 
Sapphira, the news of which spread like wildfire among 
the gathered thousands of Christians, was very great. 
The record says, "fear came on all the church, and 
upon as many as heard these things." But the apos- 
tles, as if they had received fresh inspiration, wrought 
with renewed energy "signs and wonders among the 
people;" and while the rich and honorable stood aloof 
from them through pride, the mass of the people " mag- 
nified them," and "believers were the more added to 
Ihe Lord, both men and women." Deeper and wider 



214 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



the excitement spread, until it dashed over the walls 
of Jerusalem and flowed to all the surrounding cities. 
The enemies of Christianity could remain quiet no 
longer. Through the influence of Caiaphas the High 
Priest, the 'Sanhedrim issued an order for the appre- 
hension of the apostles. The command was obeyed, 
and they were arrested and cast into prison. But one 
of God's angels opened the prison doors, and bade them 
go into the temple and preach the gospel. Conceive if 
you can the amazement of those persecutors when the 
news was brought to them in the morning, that the men 
whom they had imprisoned on the preceding night had 
escaped, and, in opposition to their command, were 
preaching in the public place to the people. Speedily 
they were again seized and brought before the Sanhed- 
rim, when the High Priest arrogantly asked, u Did not 
we straitly command you that ye should not teach in 
this name? and behold ye have filled all Jerusalem 
with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's 
blood upon us." 

Ah, they thought that when they had secured the 
crucifixion of Christ they had put down Christianity ; 
but now they find that his death has given life to his 
cause, and their guilty souls tremble in fear of the ven- 
geance which his innocent blood calls down upon them. 
But Peter arises, and, addressing that august body 
with the calm dignity and heroic intrepidity of the true 
martyr-spirit, utters these immortal words, ' c We ought 
to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers 
raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 



THE MARTYR-DEACON. 215 



Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a 
Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel, 
and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of 
these things, and so is also the Holj Ghost, whom God 
hath given to them that obey him.' 7 Wha„t a speech 
that was under the circumstances ! Tell me, can this 
be the Peter who once in the presence of this same 
Caiaphas, quailed before the inquisitiveness of a servant 
girl ? It is the same man, acting out his real manhood, 
permeated now by a divine religion. "What, think you, 
was the effect of this intrepid speech?" They were 
cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them." De- 
terred from this, through the advice of an eminent law- 
yer, they merely scourged the apostles, gave orders 
that they should not speak in the name of Christ, and 
let them go. How, think you, did Peter and his breth- 
ren feel after this cruel scourging, and act in respect 
to this authoritative injunction? The record says, 
" They departed from the presence of the council, re- 
joicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame 
for his name. And daily in the temple and in every 
house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus 
Christ," I have introduced this narrative to show 
you, at this point, the existence and operation of two 
antagonistic spirits. On the one hand the spirit of 
relentless persecution, on the other hand that which 
was prepared to brave even martyrdom for Christian- 

itj. 

The record next opens to us* an. internal view of the 
church itself. Its numbers were very large, and were 



216 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



made up of two classes : Hebrews, i. e., Jews who 
lived in Palestine, and Grecians, i. e., Jews else- 
where called Hellenists, who lived among the Gentiles 
and spoke the Greek language. Between these two 
classes a murmuring arose, because the latter affirmed 
that " their widows were neglected in the daily minis- 
trations." This gave alarm to the apostles. They im- 
mediately called a meeting of the church, and laid the 
matter before that assembly, saying, "It is not meet 
that we should leave the word of God to serve tables. 
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men 
of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, 
whom we may appoint over this business." The pro- 
priety of this measure at once impressed the multitude, 
and they immediately chose seven men for this pur- 
pose. The first one, however, among all the gathered 
hundreds on whom the thought and the heart of the 
united church immediately fixed, as deserving the office 
of deacon, was Stephen, our representative man. 

Although we have no previous record of him, what 
a volume this one fact opens to us in regard to him in 
his social relations, his character for honesty, integrity 
and wisdom, and his position among them as a Chris- 
tian ! Possessing the confidence and affection of the 
entire first Christian society, enjoying the personal 
ministry of the apostles, and encircled by the miracu- 
lous energy of the Holy Spirit, he seems to have been 
worthy in every respect of the distinguished honor thus 
conferred upon him. As a similar necessity exists in 
every church in every age, every regularly-organized 



THE MARTYR DEACON. 217 



company of Christians have had, and will have their 
chosen deacons, but to Stephen will ever belong the 
honor of having been the first deacon of the first Chris- 
tian church ever organized. 

These deacons, with Stephen at their head, having 
knelt before the apostles, were, after solemn prayer, 
consecrated by the laying on of hands, and thus offi- 
cially set apart to their important work. You now see 
the church fully organized and equipped for the war — 
every member fired with holy zeal to spread a knowledge 
of redemption through the blood of the lately-crucified 
man of Calvary, " and the word of God increased and the 
company of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, 
and a great number of the priests were obedient to the 
faith. J; In the prosecution of this work, Stephen, like 
a true deacon, worthy of the responsible position to 
which he had been called, stood, prompt and efficient, 
by the side of his ministering brethren, and while the 
record does not tell us that he possessed great talents, 
it does say that he was u full of faith and power,'' and 
did " great wonders and miracles among the people.'' 

During all this time the spirit of persecution had 
increased in bitterness. The increasing spread of 
Christianity aroused, rather than intimidated its ene- 
mies. Hitherto their animosity had only developed 
itself publicly in threats, imprisonments and scourgings 
of the disciples, but now it became irrepressible in its 
plenitude of wrath, and was prepared and determined 
to pursue, even unto death, its object. Then com- 
menced a series of direful persecutions against Chris- 

10 



218 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



tians, which even papal malignity, reveling in the 
license of the dark ages, has not surpassed, the victims 
of whose ferocity were numbered by thousands. They 
began thus. 

In Jerusalem there was a synagogue made up of 
foreign Jews from five different countries, who directed 
their opposition especially toward Stephen. They at 
first debated the great question with him ; but this 
deacon confounded them in argument, insomuch that 
they were not able " to resist the wisdom and spirit by 
which he spake." Vanquished on this manly field, 
their pride wounded and their hatred increased, they 
determined on his death. To secure this they suborned 
witnesses, apprehended him, brought him before the 
Sanhedrim, and charged him with blasphemy. ! for 
an artist's power to depict that scene ! Alas ! I have 
it not. But you can see the malignant joy in the faces 
of those in that circle of maddened persecutors, as they 
glare upon their victim, now entirely in their power. 
You can see that unarmed, unbefriended, doomed deacon 
as he stands before them, conscious that his doom is 
near, conscious that he shall never more mingle with 
his brethren on earth ; conscious that he is never again 
to hear the ripple of Siloa's brook flowing "fast by the 
oracles of God;' 7 conscious that the perfumed breezes 
of Judea's hills shall never again fan his brow ; con- 
scious that the last tone of earthly love has fallen on 
his ear ; conscious that the shadow of the dark wing of 
the death angel is falling on him, and yet standing 
calm and unmoved among those who pant for his blood. 



THE MARTYK-DEACON. 219 



But see ! the persecutors; the lying witnesses, the 
judges are all amazed at something in the appearance 
of their victim. What is it? Look at him yourself. 
See ! his face is radiant with a glory not of earth ; a 
beam of eternal sunshine has pierced the black clouds 
and fallen on him, as did the light of heaven, descend- 
ing upon Tabor's summit, pour celestial radiance on 
the face of our Lord, until his disciples were stricken 
down before its majesty, and therefore the record says 
that they "that sat in the council saw his face as it 
had been the face of an angel." 

The High Priest speaks. Addressing Stephen he 
asks, "'Are these things so V 7 i. e., have you blasphemed 
— do these witnesses speak the truth? The deacon 
prepares to give in what he knows to be his last testi- 
mony for Jesus. ! how grand is the repose of that 
mild yet firm face ! How bright is the beaming of 
those eyes as they overflow with a holy, benignant 
earnestness ! How significant is his whole expression 
of the unspoken cry, which is going up from his heart 
to his listening Master for help in this his last time of 
need ! As he commences, I hear no weak faltering in 
his voice, I detect no evidence of a trembling, cringing 
spirit in his outflowing sentences. No ; bis tones are 
full and clear, his words are bold and fearless as, re- 
membering the official dignity before which he stands, 
he thus opens: "'Men, brethren, and fathers," and 
delivers that comprehensive address recorded in the 
seventh chapter of the Acts. John Huss, arraigned 
before the tribunal of his enemies ; Luther, confronting 



220 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



the defenders of hoary error at Worms, come up before 
my mind while I listen to this defense, with their noble 
declarations of confidence in the same belief which Ste- 
phen boldly avows. Gazing upon him, my eyes grow 
dim with admiring tears, and all the sublimity of earth 
is forgotten as I grasp the full grandeur of the position 
he occupies before that august but guilty tribunal. 
Here my Saviour stood and felt the hot breath of hate 
scorch his cheek as the powers of darkness closed 
sternly around him ; here prophets were encircled be- 
fore and saints placed after him, and while the gathered 
testimony which this bar of judgment has evoked, surges 
around me and sways my soul, I listen to hear what 
the prisoner now arraigned shall say. 

Sorry am I, that I have not time to quote his entire 
speech, to delineate in his own words the outlines and 
features of that noble lifetime, the career of the He- 
brew nation which will ever be unparelleled in history, 
and to point out the train of thought running through 
the whole, and gradually gaining intensity and force 
until this burning climax is hurled forth, u Ye stiff- 
necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do 
always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your fathers did, so 
do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers 
persecuted? and they have slain them which showed 
before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye 
have been now the betrayers and murderers ; who have 
received the law by the disposition of angels, and have 
not kept it." I can only refer to this, and proceed to 
the effect which it produced. See how keenly the re- 



THE MARTYR-DEACOX. 221 



bake has cut them to the heart. They "gnash on 
him with their teeth."' as the wolf, coward that he is. 
whets his sharp flings in hungry eestacy before he leaps 
upon his prey. And in contrast to their fiendish atti- 
tudes, look at the deacon. He does not return their 
gaze. He has done with them. He has no more to say. 
He knows his doom. He knows earth has no hope for 
him. He knows that he is as surely bereft of earthly 
assistance, as if he was within the ranks of heathen, 
before the secret tribunal of Roman vengeance, instead 
of being surrounded by his own fellow-citizens, those 
who profess to worship the God of heaven and earth. 
Therefore, he looks away from them to his only refuge 
and implores aid from heaven's King. Again, that 
unearthly glory beams from his face, as lifting his 
hands, which are soon to be paralyzed in death, he ex- 
claims, " Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the 
Son of man standing; on the right hand of God/' At 
this his persecutors '-cried out with a loud voice, and 
stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord 
and cast him out of the city," where the perjured wit- 
nesses having removed their clothes and laid them down 
at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul, stoned 
him while he was kneeling down and praying. -'Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit ;" and with his expiring breath, 
amid the shower of fast and heavy-falling stones, gov- 
erned by the same spirit which imbued his Master when 
on the cross, he cried with a loud voice, : •' Lord, lay 
not this sin to their charge,'* and the record says that 
when he had said this " he fell asleep." 



222 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Their bloody work accomplished, his murderers re- 
turned in triumph to the city, leaving the martyr's 
body bruised, mangled, lifeless in its gory bed beneath 
its covering of death-dealing stones. Think you that, 
meanwhile, the church had forgotten their beloved 
brother and deacon ? Think you that they were ignor- 
ant or reckless of his danger ? Think you, that as the 
crowd, emerging from the Sanhedrim chamber, hurried 
him along the streets and to the field of death, many 
Christian men and women did not mingle with it, and 
with sorrowing hearts watch even to the bitter end, and 
treasure up the memory of their suffering brother's 
looks and words and unquailing fortitude, sustained by 
visions of an opening heaven, revealing his Lord as 
having risen from his throne, approaching the very 
verge of the spirit land, and there waiting to receive 
the soul of his martyred servant the moment it left the 
body? Yea, verily. We read that " devout men car- 
ried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation 
over him." Those men were doubtless the six remain- 
ing deacons, his brethren in office as well as in Christ ; 
these were the appropriate persons to bear the loved 
body to the tomb, where, embalmed with the tears of the 
church, they left it to repose until the morning of the 
resurrection, when it shall rise in immortal beauty, 
fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, and, re- 
united with his soul, shall stand on the plains of glory 
amid waving palms, sounding harps and choral sym- 
phonies, recognized by angels and the redeemed as the 
first Christian martyr, recognized by Jehovah Jesus 



TTIE MARTYR-DEACON. 223 



as the first who, after himself, tasted the bitterness of 
a violent death for the gospel's sake. I present to 

1. A brief analysis of the character of this repre- 
sentative man. It may interest you to know that 
many believe that he, like Paul, had studied law with 
Gamaliel, and that he was at this period about seventy 
years old. Whether or not he was thus educated, it is 
certain that he possessed a strong and cultured mind. 
Consider one proof of this. I refer to that defense be- 
fore the Sanhedrim. Remember he was charged with 
blasphemy against the temple and the law of Moses, 
whereas he had only asserted Christ to be the Messiah, 
and that if he was rejected the nation would be de- 
stroyed. He does not simply deny the ^harge, but in 
a most logical manner discusses this proposition : that 
from the beginning God had in view the dispensation 
now opening, and that his designs had been uniformly 
opposed by their impious forefathers. Study his dem- 
onstration of that proposition ; the perfection of its 
arrangement, the accumulation of its argument and 
the tremendous force of its conclusion, and you will be 
convinced that he must have possessed vigorous intel- 
lectual power, and what every man, every Christian, 
and especially every deacon ought to have, great fa- 
miliarity with the Scriptures. His possession of the ele- 
ments of a high virtuous character among his fellow- 
men is indicated, by his elevation to the highest office 
in the church next to the apostleship. 

Observe also the type of his piety. It was not a 



224 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



large development of natural amiability. It was not 
a fierce fanatical devotion. It was an intelligent be- 
lief of the demonstrated truths of Christianity, together 
with a personal experience of their transforming power 
as applied by the Holy Spirit to his own soul. But he 
had not been satisfied w T ith being a mere recipient of 
elementary Christianity, he had pressed along the bright 
pathway of Christian attainment until he reached the 
full stature of a man in Christ Jesus, a man " full of 
faith and of the Holy Ghost.'* Moreover , his was an 
active piety. He never seems to have believed that 
God converted him merely for his own benefit, to go 
to heaven on flowery beds of ease, or placed him in the 
church to enjoy without working or suffering. Nay, 
you see him ready to meet every call of duty, willing 
to sustain every burden. The church needed a deacon 
and chose him, and you hear of no begging off, no ex- 
cuse, no declinature, but a manly recognition of the 
call of the church as the voice of God, and a conscien- 
tious devotion to his duties as a helper of the apostles. 
You see him doino; wonders in the cause of religion : 
demonstrating how much can be done by a willing 
heart and hands in the service of the Master. 

And again, note well the invincibteness of his 
courage. He dared to meet and discuss the great 
question with the foreign synagogue. And when ar- 
raigned before the implacable ranks of the Sanhedrim^ 
environed by the coils of deadly hate which had been 
winding about him, he stood as calm and unmoved as 
did his Lord before the same High Priest, not quite 



THE MARTYR-DEACON. 225 



one year before. And when dragged through the fa- 
miliar streets he had so often traversed, past the mar- 
ket places where his name was known to all. past 
friends and acquaintances, past, perchance, his own 
home where his little ones were waiting for their 
father's return, surrounded by the jeering mob whose 
voices had yelled around the crucifixion, to that most 
fearful death — a death by stoning : knowing that es- 
cape was impossible and that unutterable agonies await- 
ed him, you see no shrinking, but a fortitude like his 
Redeemer's, a magnanimity like that of him who, as a 
"sheep before its shearers'' was dumb, a forgiveness 
akin to that which prompted the prayer, " Father, for- 
give them, for they know not what they do." In short, 
you feel convinced that he was one of those who, though 

' : Firm orbs convulsed, should all the planets fly, 
"World crush on world, and ocean mix with sky. 
Yet undismayed would view the falling whole, 
And still maintain the purpose of his soul." 

Thank God for the record of such a man, Stephen's 
life left a glorious influence behind it among the He- 
brew Christians, but did not end in those first ages of 
Christianity. It was inscribed upon the pages of the 
Scriptures by divine inspiration, that, side by side with 
the record of our Saviour's career, it might outlive the 
wreck of ''' empires and eras," and, like it, pass through 
the web of time a shuttle in the hand of God to weave 
the bright colors of virtue, of constancy, and of Chris- 
tian triumph into the fabric of human souls, which is 

10* 



-226 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



to be unrolled and examined when the Christ shall sit 
on the judgment seat. So its contemplation affects 
us ; it elevates and expands the mind ; it exalts our 
conceptions of what our humanity may become ; it in- 
spires us with ardor to attain to those altitudes of 
human character which we here see developed ; it mag- 
nifies the gospel and the grace of God ; it demon- 
strates the divinity of the Christian religion, and in 
our inner souls enkindles our love, inspires our hope, 
and invigorates our faith ! 

2. I desire you to study this exemplification of 
the martyr- spirit. 

This spirit is the predominating element in Stephen's 
historic character. What does the term " martyr 7 ' 
mean? Originally it merely signified "a witness." 
Hence, as all Christians were designed to be witnesses 
for Christ, in this primitive sense all were to be mar- 
tyrs. But there were two ways of bearing testimony 
for the crucified Jesus : one by words and an exem- 
plary life, another by suffering and dying for him. 
Soon the latter came to be the exclusive application of 
this term ; it was confined to those who bore witness 
for Christ by suffering ignominy and death for him. 
You can easily see, that it required a higher and strong- 
er faith to enable a man thus to bear testimony, than 
was needed in the former case. Persecution was, of 
course, the occasion for the development of this spirit. 

Commencing with the death of Stephen, the first 
great persecution of the Christian church raged at Je- 
rusalem, until it scattered the thousands of Christians 



THE MARTYR-DEACON 227 



there congregated, throughout Judea. During this only 
one of the apostles suffered — James, the brother of 
John. He was the first apostolic martyr. The sec- 
ond persecution, whose infernal machinery was set in 
motion by Xero. occurred at Rome, during which Peter 
and Paul were slain, and in which Christians were hung 
up at the corners of the streets, and burned to ashes to 
give light during the night. The third broke out un- 
der Domitian. A. D. 95 : the fourth under Trajan, a. d. 
145 : the fifth under Marcus Aurelius. a. p. 177 ; the 
sixth under Maximian. a. d. 235. Persecution also 
ravaged the church in the years 219. 257. and 271. 
With the later cruelty of the papal power, who is the 
woman spoken of in Revelation, as • • drunk with the 
blood of the martyrs of Jesus." you are familiar. All 
these have in the aggregate, shed the blood of millions 
of Christian men and women. "We call the periods in 
which the most of these occurred. :; the dark ages/' 
and that is an appropriate name. Such deeds are the 
fit denizens of darkness, moral as well as physical. 
The spirit that animated Stephen and his numerous 
successors we call the martyr spirit. What are its 
elements ? 

1. A certain knowledge of the truthfulness of Chris- 
tianity. Xo man will die voluntarily for that, which he 
does not know to be true. 

2. A deep experience in the heart of the divine 
power and sustaining energy of the gospel, strengthen- 
ing the will, confirming the purpose, making spiritual 
things realities; revealing the temporary and transient 



228 REPRESENTATIVE MEX. 



nature of all earthly things, producing entireness of 
consecration to the will of God, and absorbing desire 
both to do and suffer that will, inspiring every energy 
of the nature with an enthusiasm not of earth — an en- 
thusiasm embodying such lofty heroism that neither 
murderous stones, ravenous beasts, consuming flames, 
nor death in any form, is able to intimidate it. By 
this, faith becomes invincible, hope firmly grasps fru- 
ition, and love glows with the ardor of an eternal flame. 
Nor is this wild fanaticism. You do not call the mar- 
tyrs of science, or the martyrs of liberty, fanatics, who 
have given up their lives for the good of those yet un- 
born. Why not ? Because you know, that with those 
unselfish and heroic men the love of science and free- 
dom was a passion stronger than the love of life. Why 
doubt then, that the far higher power and deeper expe- 
rience of religion, the influence of the Holy Spirit, could, 
in a similar manner, enable Stephen, the deacon, and 
millions of others, to do for Christ what He did for 
them — willingly die ? What to a Christian, with such 
attainments, is death, with all its most terrific pain, 
but a release from earth to the eternal glory of heaven ? 
Nothing can be more ennobling to humanity than this 
spirit ; for in its holy trust in the great unseen realities 
of God, it calls forth and develops the noblest powers 
of our being. 

Over whose death hovers a more transcendent glory 
than that, which illuminates the features of one who 
gave up all for the truth ? A martyr's character is 
the ideal of unselfishness ? You talk of the glory of 



TIIE MARTYR-DEACOX. 229 



a warrior's death, whose couch is broken spears and 
slaughtered men — the debris of the bannered host, 
which writhed beneath the steps of carnage. But 
fierce hatred and desire for blood raged in the dying 
fighter's bosom; reason's voice was unheard amid the 
roar of conflict within and without. History tells us 
that when the great Caesar was assassinated, he first 
gazed upon the marble countenance of Pornpey. and 
then used his last strength in arranging his robes be- 
fore he fell, that he might lie with becoming dignity in 
death. It tells us that Nelson, when commencing the 
battle of Trafalgar, in which he lost his life, said pleas- 
antly. :; Xow for a peerage or Westminster Abbey.*' 
But there is in neither of these instances that of the he- 
roic element, which is worthy to be compared with that 
developed in the death of Stephen, who. without resist- 
ance, died with a heart full of love to God and man. 
with a prayer for the forgiveness of his enemies on his 
lips, with his vision fixed upon Christ, and his spirit 
resigned to the God who gave it. death, glorious 
and peerless ! Earthly fame grows dim in its luster 
beside thy triumph ! 

Has the martyr spirit left the church ? Are there 
none now among the millions of Christians who, if 
called, would thus seal their testimony? It is to be 
feared that many of us would shrink in the hour of 
trial. Alas ! instead of the martyr spirit, we are too 
much filled with the world's spirit. Sometimes we 
even complain of the crosses which we now have to 
bear, the paltry sums we pay, the little demands upon 



230 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



our time which our religion makes. We might prove 
cowardly witnesses if tested to the extreme. But, 
blessed be his name, our Master has a remnant ac- 
cording to the election of grace. You will find a few 
scattered through all Christian churches, who could and 
would endure the trial. The reason is that such have 
more religion than the rest of us. They are like Ste- 
phen, "full of faith and the Holy Ghost, " and it is 
my firm conviction that should persecution again rage, 
should Christianity again need men and women to bear 
testimony for it with their blood, needed grace would 
be given, and many, very many, who now seem weak 
and trembling, would go boldly to the stake and wel- 
come the flame-shroud and chariot of fire for Jesus' 
sake. Sure I am, that among our missionaries there 
have been, and are plain developments of the martyr 
spirit. 0, ascended, triumphant Jesus, bless thy church 
with more of it ! In conclusion I remark, 

1. How glorious is a martyr's reward ! 

Think once more of this deacon, as with dying eyes 
he saw Christ waiting to receive him, as after death he 
was welcomed to heaven. Who shall describe the ex- 
ceeding greatness of his reward as he received the plau- 
dit, " Well done. 7 ' from the lips of his King and heard 
it echoed by all the hosts of heaven ? You remember 
that in the sublime visions which were opened to the 
apostle at Patmos, he saw some who were nearest the 
throne, and asked, " Who are these?" And the an- 
swer was, "These are they who have come up out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made 



THE MARTYR-DEACON. 231 



them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are 
they before the throne of God. They shall hunger no 
more, nor thirst any more. Neither shall the sun light 
on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the 
midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto 
living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes." Transcendent destiny — what 
Christian heart does not pant for it ? We are not called 
to suffer as Stephen did. but we may possess in essence 
the martyr spirit, which will enable us cheerfully to en- 
dure the trials to which we may be subjected, and meet 
dangers to which we may be exposed ; faithfully to per- 
form the duties which may be assigned to us in our re- 
spective spheres, and then a reward similar to his in 
nature, if not in degree, shall be ours. Ever remem- 
ber that our love for the truth, may be always deter- 
mined by our willingness to suffer for it, 

2. How precious is the legacy of influence which 
this class of icitnesses for Christ has left to the 
church! It was said of old that " the blood of mar- 
tyrs is the seed of the church.'' Time continually 
confirms this statement, 

"It is not shed in vain — 
The blood of martyrs ! from its freshening rain 
High springs the church, like some fount-shadowing palm ; 
The nations crowd beneath its branching shade ; 
Of its green leaves are kingly diadems made ; 
And wrapped within its deep embosoming calm, 
Earth sinks to slumber like the breakers deep, 
And war's tempestuous vultures fold their wings and sleep." 



382 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Mythology relates that Cadmus sowed dragons' teeth 
in the soil, and from them sprang a race of warriors, 
fierce and irresistible. A more benignant harvest has 
attended the implanting of such holy germs as we have 
contemplated ; the early and the latter rains have fos- 
tered the plants that grew from such seeds as Stephen's 
death, and the fruit which is thus to be borne to the 
great Husbandman can only be estimated, when he shall 
gather all his w T heat into his garner. They who have 
given up life for their Master have been blessed indeed ! 
They have won for themselves a triumphal entry to 
heaven, the richest love of their Redeemer, and a place 
" nearest the throne." They have realized the desire 
of their hearts, to do much for Jesus ; for their ene- 
mies have often been confounded by their fortitude and 
thus led to the cross : and they have achieved what men 
during all time have held to be of more value than 
life — immortal fame ; for their existence on earth and 
departure from it, have been and will be regarded by the 
mass of mankind, as is the career and disappearance of 
the sun held in remembrance during the night, by those 
whose life is yet glowing from the sustenance it has af- 
forded. And who shall compute the value of their in- 
fluence upon succeeding ages ? Ah ! it has been the 
richest legacy of the sacramental host, whence they 
have drawn strength in hours of weakness, hope in 
hours of despair, courage in seasons of discouragement. 
It has been and ever will be one essential element of 
their glory, a pledge and precursor of the great triumph 
of their cause. 



TTTE MAItTYR-DEACOX. 233 



3. We learn from the Scriptures, that a deeper re- 
lation than those which we have contemplated, exists 
between the death of martyrs and succeeding ages. 
We learn that thej will not only be productive of ever 
increasing rewards to the sufferers, and of permanent 
and benignant blessings to the race, but that they will 
be avenged. John says in Revelation that he saw { ' the 
seven seals opened, and when the fifth seal was opened, 
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain 
for the word of God. and for the testimony which they 
held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying. • How 
long. Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and 
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth V 
And white robes were given unto every one of them, 
and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for 
a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their 
brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be 
fulfilled.'*' When the day shall come that shall witness 
the last stage and the end of Time's journey. 

■• VThen time itself shall cease. 

And final rain's desolating peace 

Enwrap this wide and restless world of man ; 

"When the Judge rides upon the enthroning wind, 

And o'er all generations of mankind 

Eternal vengeance waves its winnowing fan; 

when the earth shall have completed its weary cycle 
of sin and sorrow, and shall roll back into the sunshine 
of purity which bathed its form before it had entered 
upon its awful orbit of aberration, all of us. as we look 



234 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



back along the perspective of earth's eventful career, 
which has witnessed the grandest of the works of our 
God, and shall stand unparalleled in the annals of 
eternity, shall have reason to say that the blood of 
martyrs has been demanded at the hand of their ene- 
mies, that vengeance has been satisfied ; and as we mark 
the long list of such murders engraven in the book of 
justice gradually being effaced, as retribution pursued 
its course, until not one remained to cry out for avenge- 
ment, we shall to the imploration of Milton, 

' ' Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," 

reply that, the Lord God of Sabaoth has wiped away 
all the indignity which has been offered to his cause, 
and gloriously fulfilled his pledge and promise to avenge 
the sufferings, of all those who have gone from earth 
through much tribulation. 



%\t Mmd SIWjj Utaa. 



THE NAMELESS 



oral JJ o it it § |H .a it 



" Talk they of morals ? O, thou bleeding love, 
Thou giver of new morals to mankind, 
The grand morality is love to thee !"— Young. 

11 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is 
guilty of all." 



As introductory to a discussion of this character, I 
direct your attention to an interesting fact. It is more 
than probable, that our Lord Jesus came in personal 
contact with representatives, of every phase of human 
character now found among men ; and it affords a 
most profitable study to observe how he adapted the 
same elementary truths, in different forms, to each of 
these developments of the same fundamental character. 

For instance, he met some men who were using a 
religious profession as a cloak to cover up their moral 
deformities and conceal their base purposes, and to them 
he administered the most withering rebukes, whose cul- 
mination is found in that terrific sentence, "Ye ser- 
pents, ye generation of vipers, how shall ye escape the 
damnation of hell ?" He met others who were giving 
themselves up to oriental ease and sensual indulgence. 



238 REPRESENTATIVE MEN". 



and to them he said, " If any man will be my disci- 
ple let him deny himself" He met oppressed toiling 
and sorrowing ones with no reference to self-denial, but 
with the sweet invitation, " Come unto me all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
He met others, who were wearing out their lives, ut- 
terly neglecting their spiritual interests to gain transi- 
tory possessions, with the unanswered question, u What 
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose 
his own soul ?" He met privately, at night, the high- 
minded, polished Nicodemus, who sought in the most 
polite manner to know the general truth concerning 
his religion, with the personal appeal to his own moral 
necessity, " Verily I say unto thee, except a man be 
born again he can not see the kingdom of God." A 
nobleman came to him imploring the life of his son, say- 
ing, " Come down, ere my child die." In that ex- 
pression I hear a heart-groan, I see a scalding tear in 
every word. To him he replied merely — recognizing 
and appreciating his faith — u Go thy way, thy son 
liveth." Many came, professing to be willing to follow 
him, but desiring to first go back and attend to their 
worldly affairs. To them he said, "No man having 
put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for 
the kingdom of heaven." When the tower of Siloam 
fell and buried many beneath its rums, and people 
gaped with unholy horror, supposing that those crushed 
ones must have been extraordinary sinners, he said, 
" Think ye that they were sinners above all men that 
dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell ye nay ; except ye repent 



TUE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 239 



ye shall all likewise perish.*' To Zaccheus — despised 
because of his occupation and character — who climbed 
up into a tree to see him, and whose guilty heart 
yearned towards Christ, amid the crowd of Jews, he 
said, " Zaccheus, come down, for this day is salvation 
come to thy house. For the Son of man is come to 
seek and to save that which is lost." Yv T hile to other 
penitents he said, "Thy faith hath saved thee.*' 

A careful analysis of these, and similar illustrations 
will develop two things. The first is, that while the 
expressions are different in each case, the same funda- 
mental truth pervades them all. The second is, that 
Christ addressed to each, that expression of truth 
which icas adapted to his particular case. In the 
representative man before us at present, we shall find a 
still different phase of character from any we have yet 
contemplated, as well as different treatment from any 
before referred to. And I hope, that this view of the 
general course pursued by the Saviour, will prepare us 
to understand the reason of his peculiar mode of treat- 
ing the case, we are now about to study. 

The time, w^hen the interview between our Lord and 
this man occurred, was during his journey from Perea 
to Jerusalem, just after the raising of Lazarus from the 
dead, and probably not more than two weeks before the 
crucifixion. It would seem from the narrative, that not 
only the fact of the closing up of his earthly career, 
and the anticipation of the baptism of suffering await- 
ing him, which filled his mind, and soon after forced 
him to exclaim, c: How am I straitened until it be ac- 



240 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



complished," but preceding events had combined to pro- 
duce a tender state of his sensibilities, unusual even to 
the sacred heart of our Lord. Immediately before this 
record, we have the account of children being brought 
to him for his blessing, at which, strange to tell, the 
disciples were displeased and rebuked them; but he, 
the child's friend, laid his hands on their young heads 
and uttered those immortal words which have thrilled 
through the hearts of parents ever since, " Suffer little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of God." The next person whom 
he met was our representative man. 

Who was he? 

1. He was a young man. and as such was an object 
of special interest to the Saviour. I do not remember 
that in all the New Testament, we have any record of 
an interview between Christ and a young man, except- 
ing this, which is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke. I do not doubt, that our Lord's heart rejoiced 
as he saw a young man coming towards him, in the 
bloom of whose cheek, the brightness of whose eye, the 
eagerness of whose expression, and the elasticity of 
whose step, he saw the freshness of a young life not yet 
hopelessly chained to earthliness by long-cherished 
habits of sin, not yet petrified by carnality into insen- 
sibility to spiritual things, the direction of whose forces 
was not yet ultimately determined ; for whom there 
was, as there is in the case of every young man, hope 
that he might receive correct views, imbibe and adopt 
pure principles, experience true emotions, and live to 



TEE MORAL YOUNG MAX. 241 



bless the world, perfect his own complex nature, honor 
God and secure heaven. It is not to be wondered at, 
then, that the record says. " Jesus loved him/' 

2. He was a young man occupying a high position 
in society. He was a " ruler." ; a member of the great 
national council, the Sanhedrim. This fact gives proof 
that he possessed a character eminent for ability and 
rectitude : for. with all their faults, the Jews elevated 
no man to office, who did not possess qualities deserving 
of the distinction. 

3. He was a rich young man. " He had great pos- 
sessions;" which were, doubtless, inherited. This shows 
that he had been bred in the lap of luxury, and it is an 
extraordinary thing for such a young man to think of 
any thing beyond the present world. Wealth, which is 
inherited, unearned by him who possesses it, is apt to 
pamper pride from earliest consciousness, give no stim- 
ulus to energy, and make fools and dolts of men and 
women, by causing them to consider themselves superior 
to common humanity. It is apt to lull their higher 
natures into sinful repose, so that in very many in- 
stances they never awake to the lofty solemnities of 
being, but waste all the time given to them in gliding 
through the ecliptic of hollow, superficial, fashionable 
routine, which is but another name for the smooth, 
whirling maelstrom, whose vortex is eternal death. 
The case before us is interesting, therefore, from its 
novelty. With all his wealth, and high social and civil 
position, this man has awakened to a consciousness that 

beyond these present sublunary things there is a supe- 

11 



242 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



rior, eternal good to be sought and obtained. His 
illuminated soul-vision has looked into the vast future 
of existence, compared with which the present is but a 
mere point, and realizing that within that dark, limit- 
less expanse, as within the waste of ancient night, rested 
the material of the earth that was to be, all in wild yet 
plastic confusion, so that future contained the certain 
locality of a state, which he must construct from the 
elements now preparing in his own heart, under his 
own supervision. His mind has seen, that it is wise to 
exercise carefulness and judgment and prudence now, in 
order that he may inherit u eternal life." 

In your imaginations reproduce the scene. See this 
rich young man " running" to Christ, kneeling at his 
feet in the path and lifting up his heart in one impas- 
sioned cry, " Good master, what shall I do that I may 
inherit eternal life?" What cares he for the gaping 
crowd ? What for the curled lip of the scorner ? What 
cares he who sees him, or what any one says of him ? 
He has grasped the idea of immortality, realized the 
fact that eternal life or eternal death is to be his por- 
tion. He yearns for life eternal. Noble youth ! High- 
minded young man ! He has risen above the low level 
of carnal things into his proper atmosphere, and be- 
come imbued with nobler desires, as the eagle, soaring 
for the first time above the shadow of the mountains, 
feels the unobstructed light and untainted air, quickens 
his pulse into a strong healthy throb, and dilates his 
eye into full-orbed power. The high elements of his 
manhood are stirred into vigorous action, and as he 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 243 



kneels there at the feet of the Saviour of men, tell me, 
does he not look like a true man, is he not now every 
incli a man ? Does he not think as a man ought to think ; 
feel as a man ought to feel ; kneel where humanity 
ought to kneel, at the feet of the incarnate God ? You 
may consider his riches, his honors of much importance, 
but I tell you that these dwarf into insignificance be- 
fore the true manhood he developes in the position 
which he now occupies, and the utterance of the ques- 
tion, " What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ?" 
But while kneeling there Jesus looks him through and 
through at a glance, and in order that the ruler also 
may see himself, he says, " Why callest thou me good ?" 
He means, " You believe me to be only a man. You 
intend merely to compliment, by applying to me a term 
which belongs only to God." He by no means dis- 
claims his divinity, but rebukes the flattery embodied 
in what the ruler had employed merely as a compli- 
mentary expression. Then he adds, continuing the 
probing process, words that he never used on any other 
occasion of which we have account, "Thou knowest 
the commandments," indirectly asking, " Have you ob- 
served them?" 

Now bear in mind Christ's object. He saw that 
this man did not feel himself to be a sinner. He did 
not, therefore, intend to teach that any man would be 
saved by keeping the commandments ; but he meant to 
convict this young man of guilt which he did not feel. 
Hence he cites those portions of the law which were 
especially applicable — the 6th, 7th ; 8th, 9th and 5th 



244 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



commandments. A ray of hopeful joy beams on the 
ruler's face as he exclaims, " All these have I observed 
from my youth." Ah! that ray of hope dies away, 
his countenance falls, pale dejection is visible on his 
brow, as Jesus slowly but firmly answers, " One thing 
thou lackest;" and looking with his calm, earnest, 
loving eyes still more intensely into the listener's face, 
he adds, not denying the claim he has made to legal 
obedience, " Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast 
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven, and come take up the cross and follow me." 
Look at the effect of the application of this test to the 
young man. His decision is taken, he rises from his 
knees, and uttering no word, turns his back upon 
Christ ; sorrow is depicted in his face, and he departs 
u grieved," quickening his steps the further he goes, 
but never once looking back. The disciples stand ap- 
palled ; not a man in the crowd scoffs, not an idler there 
hoots after him. All feel that he has approached the 
crisis of his life, and in shrinking back from the condi- 
tions of eternal life, has determined the destiny of his 
soul. All feel that he loves his possessions more than 
God and heaven ; that his obedience to the command- 
ments has been of their letter and not of their spirit, 
that his morality therefore is only a superficial thing, 
it is merely sublimated selfishness, w T hich could not 
stand the test to which Christ subjected it. And now 
he has gone, and Jesus breaks the silence with the 
mournful exclamation, " How hardly shall they that 
have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 77 With 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 245 



this brief record before us, let us attend to some of the 
thoughts it suggests. 

1. I submit to you. that the question this man asked 
ought to be honestly and earnestly asked, by every 
man. 

What does it involve ? Let us analyze it. 

1. A conviction that he possessed an immortal na- 
ture ; a nature which should survive the wreck of his 
body, yea the wreck of all physical worlds, and exist 
when time itself shall be no more. How such a con- 
viction, when deeply felt, exalts a man ! How much 
more truly great does he appear, when asking this ques- 
tion, " What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ?" 
than " What shall I do that I may enlarge my posses- 
sions V A man expands not into the bloated form of 
self-conceit, but into the strong, healthful maturity of 
the soul, when the idea of his own immortality, and its 
possible circumstances of happiness, pours its noon- 
blaze upon him. It enables him to stand on that lone 
summit, which commands the prospect of both sides of 
the grave, where he may place a just estimate on pres- 
ent transient things, and weigh correctly the compara- 
tive importance of his mortal body and his immortal soul, 
of brief, rapidly-passing time and unending eternity. 

2. The comprehension of the truth, that continued ex- 
istence is not. in its highest sense, life. Life, in this 
highest sense, is existence in conditions of developed, 
active, happy being. 

' It is not all of life to live, 
Nor all of death to die." 



246 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Hence the phrase, " eternal life," is used in contradis- 
tinction to " eternal death; 7 ' the former signifying ex- 
istence in glorious conditions, the latter expressing 
existence in the most acute forms of suffering. This 
young man well knew that he would exist for ever ; 
that the physical forces which could in a moment crush 
his body, could not harm his spirit, but he also knew 
that the mere assurance of existence in the great future 
by no means guarantied to him, all that is wrapped up in 
the idea of eternal life. Indeed, the conviction of eter- 
nal existence made him solicitous that it should be spent 
in conditions, which would make it desirable. Hence 
he wished to secure, if possible, that which would insure 
to him this great good. Was not this wise ? You say 
to young men, " Look out for the future ; lay not your 
plans for the present only, but let them be formed with 
regard to the contingencies that may yet come march- 
ing down upon you, from out of the darkness that ever 
rests on the path you are pursuing." And why should 
we take precautions for only that which lies between us 
and the grave, and neglect entirely to care for the in- 
finite vastness, the unending future beyond it? You 
say, " Young man, be not content to merely exist among 
your fellows, but aim to live a high, useful, blessed life." 
Why not also say, iC Be not content with the mere fact 
of immortality, but strive to secure a noble, happy eter- 
nity of life." 

3. A true understanding of the connection between 
duty and destiny. He did not believe in universal 
salvation that all men are to meet with the smiles of 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 247 



their God without regard to their character. He can 
not be numbered with such as adhere to this doctrine, 
for they. never ask as he did, " What shall I do, that I 
may inherit eternal life?" The question itself is a 
denial of their whole theory. They say with respect 
to our future existence, " No care is to be entertained 
for it. God is too good to punish his creatures. His 
infinite love will impel him to bestow eternal life on 
every man, whether it is sought by him or not. There 
is no cause for anxiety or alarm." Not so thought our 
representative man. He could see, aside from revela- 
tion, that there is now a connection between conduct and 
consequence, as the instinct of man has led him to be- 
stow rewards upon the virtuous and punishment upon 
the wicked, and he knew that the moral government 
which established that relation and that principle here, 
extends to moral beings everywhere, and is eternal as 
God, and that it must therefore exist in eternity as well 
as in time. Nor are the sentiments of these modern 
theorists confirmed by the great teacher. In reply to 
this question, did he say as men reply now, " There is 
nothing to be done ; you are sure of a happy immor- 
tality, for all will obtain it?" Nay, he recognized 
the relation which the question involved, and laid down 
clearly what the young man must do. Failing to do 
that, our Lord gave him no hope, and permitted him to 
go away with no offered compromise or alleviating sug- 
gestion. If he could have spoken what such theorists 
affirm to be the truth, would he not have done so? 
Think you not that Jesus, whose heart was ever full of 



248 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



love and sympathy, as he saw the wretched youth de- 
part so sorrowful, would not have told him to smile, to 
drive away his tears, for eternal life was his as well 
as the portion of all, if it were true ? Yea, ver- 
ily. And yet men call the doctrine which is here sanc- 
tioned by our Lord partialism, and repudiate it because, 
they say, it makes people sad. For the same reason 
they should direct their hostility towards the events of 
every-day life, for it makes a lazy man unhappy to tell 
him that he will starve if he does not work ; it makes 
a drunkard miserable to tell him that he must give up 
his cup or die, and sink to a drunkard's doom, and it 
causes a wicked man to turn pale, to tell him that he must 
give up darling sins or suffer the penalty of the law. 
Analogy, therefore, disproves the belief that militates 
against the lessons of this narrative, and reason and 
the Bible declare, that there must be an eternal con- 
nection between conduct and destiny. If we deny this 
connection, we admit not only that there are no rewards 
of virtue, but that Christ was a false teacher. 

4. He thought himself willing to do that which 
might be necessary, to gain this eternal good. Doubt- 
less he was in earnest. The fact of his coming in 
haste, kneeling down before Christ and asking this 
question, proves that he thought that he was willing to 
comply with any requisition. And he ought to have 
had such a disposition. We ought also to have it. What 
will men not do to obtain present good, even though 
they know that it must all be surrendered after a few 
years — money, office, fame, pleasure — and they must lie 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAX. 249 



down and die ? "When they know that they can carry not 
one cent of their wealth, not one leaf of fame's laurel 
into the spirit world ! What would you not do to save 
your natural life ? " All that a man hath will he give 
for his life.*' And yet that which you consider so 
valuable must end ; compared with the life of the soul 
it is as a moment to millions of millions of years. 
Why should we not then be willing to do any thing, 
however humiliating to our pride, to secure everlasting 
joy, riches and honors, and all the fullness of good 
concentrated in eternal life ? 

So much about this question. The point before us 
is, that every one should honestly, earnestly ask it, for 
what was true of this young man is true of you. The 
same immortality is before you ; the distinction between 
existence and life, the connection between conduct and 
destiny, relates to you as really as to him. Have you 
asked the question to which he gave utterance ? Have 
you ever knelt before God and imploringly cried, 
••'What shall I do?" Young man, young woman, 
have you from your heart asked this question? or are 
you merely inquiring how you may get money or pleas- 
ure ? ! in view of the urgings of your conscience, 
your sober reason, the Bible, and your kind, loving 
God, will you not ask to-day, "What shall I do 
that I may inherit eternal life?" What is earth to 
heaven, vain, hollow earthly joy to the immortal 
pleasures at God's right hand, that it should pre- 
vent you from adopting this language in a proper 

spirit ? 

11* 



250 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



2. Consider, what Christ here teaches to be the 
condition of eternal life. 

Bear in mind whom he is addressing. It is not a 
penitent sinner, it is a representative of that class of 
men who pride themselves upon their own goodness, 
morality and general integrity, and flatter themselves 
that they have "kept the commandments," and think 
that, on that account, they are not sinners, and need 
no change of heart. But amid their protestations, it is 
evident that selfishness reigns within them, not in its 
coarse, gross forms, perhaps, but in forms which ex- 
clude the supreme love of God from their souls, and 
lead them to live for themselves and the few they love ; 
selfishness, which fosters the pride of their hearts and 
makes them satisfied with themselves, feel no duty to 
repent, no need of regeneration, and reject totally and 
firmly the Lord Jesus Christ, turn away from his in- 
vitations, and dare to risk their immortality upon their 
self-righteousness. Such a man, as if to make assur- 
ance doubly sure, did come to Christ, in the case before 
us, and accordingly the Saviour made a revelation to 
him and to the world of the fact, that selfishness in 
the form of inordinate attachment to wealth reigned 
supreme in his breast, and led him to seek his own 
interests without regard to the will of God or the 
good of others; and yet he seemed to be unaware 
that such was the case, for he said, "What lack 
I yet?" 

In the answer which Christ gave to him, " Sell 
whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 251 



shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the 
cross and follow me," was a literal obedience expected? 
I answer, suppose that such was the case, what then ? 
Was that too much to ask ? Had not he done much 
more than that ? Did not * i he who was rich yet for our 
sakes become poor, that we through his poverty might 
be rich ?" If, therefore, he intended its literal accep- 
tation, he only said to the young man virtually, " You 
are rich, so was I; nay, infinitely richer than you. 
You occupy a high station, so did I, one infinitely 
higher than yours ; and I have sacrificed all this for the 
glory of God and the good of men. Go thou and do like- 
wise. I only ask you to do what I have done. I am 
bearing the cross, do you bear it also. :; Was this un- 
reasonable? Again; suppose he had literally per- 
formed the requirements of the Saviour — sold his 
possessions and gave to the poor ; filled a thousand des- 
titute houses with comfort : made a thousand wudowed 
hearts to sing : clothed, and fed, and educated a thou- 
sand poor children, and then taken up the cross and 
followed Jesus in the pathway of benevolence, tell me, 
would he not have been a greater, happier, nobler man 
than he was after he had refused compliance with the 
requisitions of Jesus, and determined to live for him- 
self? "Would not his example have been a brilliant 
beacon through all subsequent ages ? Would not his 
name have been blessed and loved, by the Christian 
heart so long as the Bible shall endure ? 

Look now at the historical circumstances of that 
period. In less than thirty years the Romans took Je- 



252 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



rusalem, desolated Judea, impoverished the more opu- 
lent classes, and so persecuted them in the Holy City 
that they were cut off by millions. Those in Judea 
who had followed Christ took the warning early, and 
fled to Pella, in the mountains of Galilee, and were thus 
not only saved from a fearful death, but retained a com- 
petency to subsist on. As this young man was a ruler, 
and very rich, he could not, if living, have escaped the 
Roman scourge : all his property, and probably his life, 
was sacrificed. So you see that, even if Jesus intended 
his test to be complied with literally, it was best for 
this man to have accepted it ; for he would have lost 
nothing valuable : it would have been a good investment 
to have laid up his treasure in heaven, for there no 
thieves, national or individual, can break through and 
steal. 

But whether he meant this literally or not. it is certain 
that at least his meaning was, " You ask ' What lack 
I yet ?' I answer, ' One thing ; thou lackest my spirit, 
that spirit which will prompt you to sacrifice your self- 
ishness for God's glory and man's good; that spirit 
which will lead you to follow me, bear my cross, and 
live for the interests of my cause. This is what, with 
all your virtues, you need — the great central element 
of holy self-sacrificing benevolence. This one thing 
you lack ; if you possessed it, your character would be 
faultless, but without it you are beggared for all eter- 
nity.' " This was too much for the young ruler; he 
would not accept such terms; he turned away from 
Jesus, and in doing so set his face directly toward the 



THE MORAL YOUNa MAN. 253 



gates of eternal woe. He clung to his selfishness ; and 
methinks that as he left, Shame, with downcast face. 
Sorrow, with tearful eyes, Remorse, all haggard and 
wild, Despair, calm and cold, went with him, and 
haunted him ever afterwards. Sure I am that when he 
came to death, they formed a horrid circle around him, 
and with their black, loathsome wings shut out from his 
sight all glimpses of joy, and hope, and heaven; and 
that he must then, if never before, have felt how fool- 
ish he had been in not obeying Christ. 

And to-day, Christianity demands substantially 
the same thing of us, as our duty and as the condition 
of the eternal life, which it promises. Ah ! how many 
there are, kind, amiable, honest in all their earthly re- 
lations, to whom Christianity says, u One thing thou 
lackest." They can not feel guilty of sins which some 
others commit, for they have not committed them. 
They know that they would not do, what they see many 
professors of Christianity doing ; they feel that they 
are above many of them in general character. And 
they really are. 1 No man can say to them, 4 *You 
have lied to me or about me ; vou have cheated me out 
of a cent ; you have been guilty of low, mean conduct ; 
you have failed to meet your engagements ; you have 
been guilty of immorality." Such men are often abused 
by preachers. They feel that they are misunderstood 
and not appreciated. They are just where this young 
man was. Jesus treated him kindly ; he loved him ; 
he did not charge him with crimes he had never com- 
mitted ; but admitted all that he claimed. And yet he 



254 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



said, " One thing thou lackest." And you see that 
he was destitute of it. ! friends, this is just what 
you lack. Do you not know that you lack supreme 
love to God; that if you have not been outw T ardly 
wicked } you have not loved God with all your heart, 
and mind, and strength ; you have not served him, nor 
lived for his glory ? You have, alas ! lived for your- 
selves, your own gratification; you have called yourselves 
and all you have your own ; the " God in whose hand 
thy breath is, and w T hose are all thy ways, hast thou 
not glorified." You have not repented of heart sins, 
of which you know you are guilty ; you have not re- 
ceived Christ as your Saviour ; you have not taken up 
your cross and followed him; you have treated the 
dear, suffering, loving, pleading Jesus with utter neg- 
lect, and acted as if he had no claim on you and you no 
need of him. Tell me, is it not true that each of you 
have made yourself your own Saviour and turned your 
back on him ? See you not that, granting you all you 
claim, as Christ did this young man, you lack this one 
thing, and, lacking it, you are, like him, destitute of a 
well-grounded hope of eternal life ? 
Behold then the requisitions : 

1. Such love to our God as will lead us to consider 
ourselves, and all w T e have as his. 

2. To be willing to do with ourselves, and our pos- 
sessions whatever God requires. 

He does not ask a man to literally sell all that he 
has, but to be willing to do so ; to resign absolute own- 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 255 



ership, and acknowledge him as owner, and himself a 
steward of the Lord's property. 

8. To deny ourselves of whatever is inconsistent with 
duty to God, and take up the cross, and follow Christ 
in the path of duty which he exemplified. 

Do you say, u This is too much to ask — the task is 
too great, I can not do it?" But ought you not to 
love God supremely? What of life, talent, health, 
property have you that you have not received from 
him ? Do you not need a Saviour ? Is the cross of 
self-denial, good doing, and Christian duty, that Jesus 
bore, unworthy of you ? Is the creature so great that 
the example of his Creator deserves not to be followed 
by him ? But, brother, sister, however it may impress 
you, such are the irreversible conditions of obtaining 
eternal life. They may make you sad and sorrowful, 
as they did this young man, but I can not help it ; 
they are the words of my Master and not mine. He 
spoke them when on earth, that they might peal through 
all the ages which he was about to construct in the fu- 
ture ; and to-day you hear their trumpet sound, as he 
intended you should, and while your soul blanches as 
the solemn notes strike it, !• remember from whose 
lips they have come, and pay respect to their import 
for the sake of their Author ! 

Moreover, this question bursts from the heart of the 
Christian past and the Christian present, " Why not 
give to God the heart he made and endowed with power 
to live ? Why not resign all we have to him and use 



256 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



it for him ? Why not accept Jesus, who was crucified 
for us, to be our Saviour ?" Does your desire for pleas- 
ure prevent you from thus acting ? No one can be so 
happy as he who has " both the promise of the life that 
now is, and of that which is to come;" who is an heir 
of the promise of an hundred fold of all that is really 
good on this earth, and after that eternal life ; who can 
look around on all the excellence of this beautiful 
world with holier feelings than the emotion of genius, 
and say, u My Father made it all; it belongs to him, 
and so do I." Whose heart, when the ear, taught by 
faith, construes the music of the wind into organ-tones 
chanting the anthem, " The earth is the Lord's and the 
fullness thereof," now in the wild crash and roar of 
its full might, and anon in the gentle breathings of 
summer zephyrs, and echoes back from all its sensibil- 
ities, Amen and amen. 

Who can have such just cause for joy, as he who has 
in Jesus a friend to console him in hours of sorrow, 
support him in hours of misfortune, guide him in hours 
of perplexity, go with him through the valley of the 
shadow of death, and give him a starry crown, a vic- 
tor's palm, an imperishable inheritance in heaven ? 

Does the love of riches, the ambition to amass wealth, 
hold you back? Christ says, " Thou shalt have treas- 
ure in heaven." That treasure is greater than earth 
can give. With a moment's reflection you would not 
restrict the term u treasure" to money; you know that 
a mind at ease, a sense of innocence, freedom and power 
are regarded by you as in the highest degree valuable, 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 257 



whenever you obtain a clear perception of their worth ; 
and of such treasure is heaven the storehouse. More 
abundant and more enduring, are the riches amassed 
there than those which time encloses. And, what is 
certainly deserving of consideration, w r ealth invested in 
heaven is secure from contingencies bearing ruin, which 
is so much dreaded here. Who, then, is the richer 
man of the two, a true Christian or a sinner ? And 
also remember, that however much you may selfishly 
cling to property or pleasure now, the time will come 
when all must be given up, must be surrendered, and 
you do nothing but die ; that, therefore, how strongly 
soever you may retain them now, your grasp w T ill yet 
be broken. Ah ! will it not enhance the agony of the 
death hour to have this double separation, your spirit 
torn from its home in the body 3 and your heart's idol 
snatched aw T ay from the embrace of the spirit ? 

But do you not see, that if by grace you give them 
up in your hearts now, consecrate yourself to God and 
follow Christ now, death will lose its sting ? 

Two facts may impress these remarks upon your 
mind. They have occurred under my own observation. 
Near the field of my ministry lived a man of the high- 
est moral character, respected as a citizen and loved 
as a friend. But he discovered that, with all his mo- 
rality, he lacked one thing. He saw that he had failed 
to love God supremely, and that he had violated all the 
claims which his duty to him had presented ; that while 
he prided himself in his morality, he was rejecting 
Christ, and in reality full of self-righteousness, and 



258 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



therefore fall of selfishness. With a full consciousness 
of these facts, he was led by the Holy Spirit to repent 
of his sins and accept Jesus as his Saviour. He con- 
secrated his all to his Lord, and took up his cross and 
followed cheerfully in his footsteps, those prints which 
the feet of our Redeemer have planted in the soil of 
humanity, which lead through the wretched hamlets of 
poverty, over the desert plains of self-denial, up the 
rocky ascents of toil and sorrows, and even to the 
agony-crowned summit of the cliff of death. But he 
was not required to traverse the whole of this trying 
pilgrimage. A sad accident checked him immediately 
after a happy marriage, when life seemed to promise all 
of joy his sanguine expectations demanded. He was 
bitten by a rabid animal, and received the terrible curse 
of hydrophobia. Terror seized his young wife and his 
relatives. But when the horrid spasms ended, he said 
to his friends, " If it is God's will, I want to live ; do 
what you can for me, but if he has otherwise decided, 
I am ready to die. I am his, all I have is his, let him 
do what he will." The physician told him that he must 
die. He received the intelligence calmly, repeating his 
willingness that the will of the Lord should be done, 
and his assurance that he was in the hands of a faithful 
Creator. After making all the arrangements necessary 
in regard to his worldly affairs, he bade adieu to his 
weeping wife, his aged mother, and a circle of sorrow- 
stricken friends, who " stood in awe the while," as they 
marked the light of heaven growing brighter on his 
face, and his eyes burning with unearthly fire as the 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 259 



radiance of celestial things kindled them, and heard his 
last tones forming themselves into silvery syllables of 
love to Jesus, and exhortations to those around him to 
love him also, and 

"Then saw in death Ms eyelids close 
Calmly, as to a night's repose, 
Like flowers at set of sun." 

This is an instance of one, who complied with Christ's 
conditions and consecrated his all to him. And do you 
not see how easy dying became ? If he had selfishly 
clung to earthly things, he would have been torn away 
from them at last, and how much better it was for him 
to have given them up when he did, and receive the 
spirit of Christ, the hope of the gospel, and a title to 
an inheritance that passeth not away, than to have re- 
tained those transitory things, and been shut out from 
eternal joy in heaven above ! 

I have known another man. Respected as a citizen 
equally with the one I have just mentioned, and be- 
loved by his family, he also " lacked one thing" — he 
would not love God supremely, he would not recognize 
himself as a steward in the Lord's employ ; he claimed 
his property, loved and used it as though it was abso- 
lutely his ow^n. He, too, came in the full vigor of 
manhood to — where you and I will also be found at 
sometime — a death-bed. One day he asked, "What 
do people say of me?" He was told, " They say you 
must die." At this announcement of doom awful grief 
and fear were depicted on his face. He flung up his 



260 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



thin arms wildly, and exclaimed, " God! God ! I 
am not ready to die V But Justice alone was looking 
at him from the heaven he addressed, and sternly con- 
fronted him with no pity in his eye and no weakness 
in his arm. He became delirious, and death closed up 
his mortal career before he had an opportunity of seek- 
ing salvation. 

man, my brother, woman, my sister, I declare 
to you that the conditions named by the gospel are as 
easy as they can be, consistent with our own good. 
Our selfishness ought and must be sacrificed, for if not 
it will be our ruin. It contracts now our noblest 
powers, narrows now the sphere of our usefulness, and 
will yet add the sharp, inextinguishable agony of the 
spirit to the pain of the body, when the deathbed re- 
ceives us, and robs us of eternal life, if it is not crushed 
in the bud. Christianity supplies the great lack of our 
souls, for its great object is to kill this terrible evil. 
It places us in our true relations to God and our fellow- 
men, and enables us to fulfill high destinies in the life 
which w^e spend on earth. True, it takes away our 
self-righteousness, but it gives us instead the righteous- 
ness of Christ ; true, it offers us a cross, but with it is 
given grace to bear the cross, and beyond a crown of 
richest glory ; it humbles us, but only to lift us up for 
ever; it demands that we give ourselves and all we 
have to God, but it gives us in return ourselves and all 
we have for the highest purposes ; more than that, it 
gives God himself to be our Father, Christ to be our 
Saviour, and the Holy Ghost to be our regenerator and 



THE MORAL YOUNG MAN. 261 



sanctifier ; it gives victory over sin, death and hell ; it 
gives us immortal wealth, pleasure and ever-increasing 
glory. What say you ? I come in Jesus' name and 
ask, whom will you serve ? It is a case of life and 
death. Let that mysterious jury, which your Maker 
has impaneled within your own mind, sit in solemn de- 
liberation upon this question. God, angels, devils and 
redeemed are looking upon you, all await your decis- 
ion, and rest assured that it shall be to you either the 
first toll of the bell that is to ring your dirge for ever, 
or the opening notes of a song of joy which eternity 
shall listen to 

"When this generation of the universe 
Shall have been gathered to its grave." 



XI. 



©fie Mmnrf Istefiaa, 



AGRIPPA, 

%\}t Almost Christian 



" Child of sin and sorrow, 

Filled with dismay, 
Wait not for the morrow, 

Yield thee to-day ; 
Heaven bids thee come 
"While yet there 's room ; 
Child of sin and sorrow, 

Ilear and obey. 

" Child of sin and sorrow, 

Why wilt thou die ? 
Come, while thou canst borrow 

Help from on high : 
Grieve not that love 
Which, from above, 
Child of sin and sorrow, 

Would bring thee nigh.'" 



The gospel record associated with this man's history 
is so interesting that, preliminary to what I have to 
say of him, I will briefly sketch it. Impelled by the 
Spirit, Paul had hastened by sea and land from Phi- 
lippi, in order to reach Jerusalem at the time of the 
Pentecost, and after a successful journey he arrived in 
the Holy City, was joyfully received by the brethren, 
and on the subsequent day, at their request, he. re- 
hearsed to the assembled elders what God had wrought 
by him among the Gentiles. After seven days had 

12 



266 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



elapsed, during which he had given proof of his fidel- 
ity as a Jew to Jewish law, a violent storm of perse- 
cution broke out against him. It commenced thus : 
certain Asiatic Jews, filled with malignity because of 
his advocacy of Christianity, seeing him in the temple, 
excited the people against him, expelled him from it, 
cruelly beat and were about to kill him. The soldiers, 
however, came to his rescue, and conducted him to the 
castle of Antonia, from the stairway of which Paul ad- 
dressed the crowd in the Hebrew tongue. His speech 
was an able and ingenuous account of his life and con- 
version, but instead of soothing, it only the more irri- 
tated his enemies, who cried aloud, " Away with such 
a fellow ; it is not fit that he should live !" 

To appease them, the officer had Paul bound and 
was about to scourge him, but having discovered that 
his prisoner was a Eoman citizen, he immediately loosed 
him and sent him for trial to the Sanhedrim, which was 
then in session. Deeply interesting is the picture of 
Paul before that august but guilty tribunal, which had 
devised and secured the death of his Lord ; before 
which, through his own personal agency, the martyr- 
deacon, Stephen, had been arraigned. Keenly gazing 
around upon the circle of dignitaries who thirsted for 
his blood, he calmly said, " Men and brethren, I have 
lived in all good conscience until this day." You may 
conceive of the malignity that raged in the bosoms of 
those whom he addressed, when I inform you that im- 
mediately upon the utterance of this opening sentence 
of his address, the High Priest interrupted the apostle, 






THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN". 267 



and commanded those " that stood by to smite him on 
the mouth," This outrageous indignity and palpable 
illegality, aroused every element of Paul's great man- 
hood, and, although standing there alone and unarmed, 
he courageously exclaimed, " God shall smite thee, 
thou whited wall, for sittest thou to judge me after the 
law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the 
law ?" At this terrible rebuke, Ananias sank back in 
silent confusion, and the prisoner w^as allowed to pro- 
ceed, but he had not spoken long before he discovered 
that part of his accusers were Pharisees, and part Sad- 
ducees, and by skillfully introducing the doctrine of the 
resurrection, concerning which these sects were at per- 
petual variance, he divided their counsels, and secured 
his own release ; but fearing that now the mob, incensed 
by being baffled a second time, would tear him in pieces, 
he returned with the military escort to the castle. 
During that evening, forty Jews bound themselves by 
an oath ' ' that they would neither eat nor drink until 
they had killed Paul." Poor wretches! if they had 
kept their oath, they must have starved to death, for 
they never laid their hands upon him. 

News of this conspiracy was brought to the castle by 
Paul's nephew., and because of it the commanding offi- 
cer, at nine o'clock that night, sent his prisoner, under 
the protection of four hundred and seventy soldiers, to 
Antipatris, w r hich was thirty-five miles distant, and the 
next day, guarded by seventy horsemen, he was taken 
to Cesarea, twenty-five miles further, where Felix, the 
governor of Judea, resided. Five days afterwards the 



268 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



High Priest and his associates came down from Jerusa- 
lem, bringing with them a famous lawyer, Tertullus, to 
conduct the prosecution against the prisoner before 
Felix. Upon the trial, however, Paul proved himself 
superior to the Jerusalem lawyer, not only in intellec- 
tual power, but in knowledge of the law, and vanquished 
him upon the charges of sedition, heresy, and profana- 
tion which had been falsely brought against him. And 
more than even this, he secured the favor of the judge, 
who was a bad man but an intelligent functionary, who 
afterward heard him preach, and was so affected that 
he " trembled''* before the proclamation of " righteous- 
ness, temperance and judgment to come.'" From mo- 
tives of governmental policy, however, Paul was retained 
as a prisoner during two years, when Festus having 
been appointed governor in the place of Felix, his ene- 
mies brought the old charges against him before the 
new governor, and although they failed to prove them, 
still seeing no prospect of release, Paul appealed to 
Caesar, and Festus said, " Unto Caesar thou shalt go.' 7 
At this point, Agrippa appears on the historic 
scene in the folloiving connection : Festus has prom- 
ised to send Paul as a prisoner to Rome for trial ; but 
if he does so, he must also send official documents, con- 
taining an indictment and an outline of the convicting 
proof. He is unable to do either ; and yet the appeal 
having been made by the prisoner, and having been 
granted by the court, he can not now release him, and 
is greatly troubled at his own singular position. What 
shall he do ? See what occurs. Just at this trying 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 269 



emergency, Agrippa, king of Chalcis, and his beautiful 
sister Berenice, come with great pomp to Cesarea, in 
order to visit Festus, and congratulate him upon the 
dignity, to which he had been elevated by Nero. 

Let me tell you just here, all I have been able to 
learn about this king. He was the son of Herod Agrip- 
pa, and therefore a great-grandson of Herod the Great. 
When his royal father died, he was at Rome with the 
emperor Claudius, but on account of his youth no office 
was given to him. On the subsequent death of his 
father's brother, Agrippa the Great, however, he was 
elevated to the kingship of Chalcis, and upon the death 
of Claudius, Nero added largely to his domains. Al- 
though a Jew by birth, still, having been brought up at 
Rome, he became strongly attached to the Romans, and 
his government was marked by a clemency and justice 
rare in those times. 

It was during the height of his power, and regal 
fame that he came to visit Festus, and where, in the 
purpose of an overruling God, he was to meet a greater 
than Festus — to hear truths affecting his immortal des- 
tiny which he had never heard before— to witness a 
scene combining more moral sublimity than his royal 
eyes had ever beheld before — to experience emotions 
such as he had never felt before, and to get nearer to 
heaven than, alas! we fear he ever did afterward. 
During this visit, Festus informed Agrippa of the pre- 
dicament in which he was placed : told him, with ap- 
parent carelessness, " of a certain man left in bonds by 
his predecessor," against whom the chief priests had 



270 KEPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



desired him to pronounce sentence ; but that, aftei 
examination, he had found that there was no political 
charge brought against him; nothing, indeed, " but 
certain questions of their own superstition, and of one, 
Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul said was alive.' 7 
He further told him that the prisoner had appealed to 
Rome, and that he had granted the appeal ; but that he 
could specify no charges of a character that the govern- 
ment would take cognizance of. On hearing this, the 
curiosity of Agrippa was aroused. He had often heard 
about the new religion, of the strange story of the cru- 
cifixion, and the affirmed resurrection of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. He had heard, too, of the man of Tarsus, the 
proud Pharisee, the cultured scholar, the persecutor of 
the disciples of Christ, who had himself strangely be- 
come a Christian, and been preaching Christianity with 
wonderful success all through the land ; and now, by a 
singular coincidence, he found himself at Cesarea just 
in time to see and hear this famous preacher. It was 
arranged, that on the morrow the prisoner should be 
summoned before the assembled court. 

That morrow has dawned, and the appointed hour 
has come. The splendid audience-chamber is in grand 
order for the royal reception. The governor appears 
in his robes of office ; Agrippa, clad with kingly re- 
galia, and Berenice, dazzling in her queenly beauty 
and rich attire, follow him and take the elevated seats, 
overhung with Tyrian purple and bespangled with 
Roman emblems of power and grandeur, which have 
been prepared for them. Immediately th^ high officers 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 271 



of the Roman army, the civil magistrates, and others 
of high repute enter and take the places assigned them, 
and the order is given for the appearance of the prisoner. 
Remember now, that although Festus is a Roman, 
Agrippa is a Jew — a great grandson of the glorious 
Mariamne — and therefore he is acquainted with the 
Jewish Scriptures, the promise of a Messiah ; he knows 
that Jesus of Nazareth professed to be that Messiah ; 
he knows the history of the prisoner who is coming in, 
what a strict Phariseee he had been, how high he had 
stood at Jerusalem as a scholar and defender of Judaism, 
what zeal he had manifested in the persecution of the 
followers of Christ, and that by having become a 
Christian himself he had sacrificed every thing, thus 
giving the most conclusive proof of his sincerity. Im- 
agine now the intensity of Agrippa' s curiosity, to see 
and hear this extraordinary man ! There is a moment- 
ary confusion among the crowd at the door, as soldiers 
lead in the chained prisoner, and place him before the 
court. All eyes are fixed upon him. He is pale but 
calm, and there is about him the air of a cultured gen- 
tleman, blended with martyr meekness and heroic firm- 
ness never before witnessed in a prisoner at that bar. 
The crowded chamber is silent as the house of death. 
Festus opens the proceedings by an address to the king 
and the assembly, in which he informs them, that the 
Jews declare that this man ought not to live, but hav- 
ing found, in the preceding examination, nothing 
worthy of death, and the prisoner having appealed to 
Caesar, he was embarrassed because he could specify no 



272 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



crimes ; that he had therefore brought him before them, 
and especially King Agrippa, in order that by a new 
examination some definite charges might be made out. 
Agrippa then, looking kindly upon the prisoner, says, 
" Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself." This 
is all the persecuted apostle desires. And immediately 
stretching forth his manacled hand, he proceeds with 
his defense, which the best judges pronounce superior 
in its general eloquence and convincing truthfulness, to 
any thing of the kind found in the records of the 
world's jurisprudence. Not having space to quote it, I 
give you this brief analysis of it. First, he describes the 
manner of his life before his conversion, details his char- 
acter as a Pharisee, the bitterness of his opposition to 
Christianity, and how he " verily thought he ought to do 
many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Naza- 
reth." Next, he relates the manner of his conversion, 
and how Christ called him to preach the gospel which 
he had despised, with reference to which he exclaims, 
" Whereupon, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient 
to the heavenly vision :" and then, having given an 
account of his life since he became a Christian and a 
minister, as he proceeds to demonstrate that ancient 
prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, Festus 
interrupts him with the exclamation, " Paul, thou art 
beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad ! 

Undisturbed by this insulting accusation, with the 
politeness of a gentleman, the firmness of a man and 
the dignity of a Christian, the prisoner replies, "lam 
not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 273 



truth and soberness ; for the king knowetk of these 
things, before whom I speak. " Then, turning again 
toward Agrippa, in whom Paul has seen the marks 
of sympathy from the moment he entered the presence- 
chamber, and with the vast energies of his mighty soul 
wrought up to the highest pitch of lofty and concen- 
trated excitement, and lifting again that chained right 
hand, while he fixes his piercing but now tear-moistened 
gaze upon him, he exclaims, " King Agrippa! believ- 
est thou the prophets?" He waits not for an answer, 
for, with exultant joy, he sees conviction on that royal 
countenance, and, in a voice of mellowed triumph, shouts, 
" I know that thou believest !" Do you perceive Paul's 
victorious point ? Agrippa does believe the prophets, 
he must therefore see the fulfillment of their prophecies 
in Christ ; therefore, Christianity is true, and if true, 
then the king ought to become a Christian as well as 
himself. 0, I know how that great heart yearns for 
his conversion, how its every fiber thrills with delight 
at the hope of saving another soul ! And surely he is 
not entirely mistaken. Conviction has seized the king's 
mind, for he says, in obviously earnest tones, " Almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' 7 Alas! alas! 
only "almost." The prisoner is deeply moved, and 
subdued in manner and voice. He replies, "I would 
to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me 
this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, 
except these bonds." 

The scene is closed. He has returned to his prison. 
The court consult and decide that he has done nothing 
12* 



274 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



worthy of death or bonds ; and Agrippa adds — and these 
are the last of his recorded words — " This man might 
have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar." 
History is nearly silent concerning him after this, re- 
cording only the fact of his remaining identified with 
the Romans, aiding them at the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, the city of his own fathers ; and then, accompanied 
by his sister, with whom he was charged with having been 
guilty of habitual incest, he returned to Rome, where 
he died at the age of seventy. 

For one moment look at the three different types of 
men brought together in that regal audience-chamber. 

In Governor Festus, you see a polished man of the 
world, perfectly unconcerned, entirely indifferent in 
relation to Christianity. He looks upon it with sincere 
contempt, as "one of the Jewish superstitions," un- 
worthy of his attention, much less of his regard. Hear 
with what complete indifference, what chilling coolness, 
he speaks of the Lord Christ, as " one Jesus, who was 
dead, but Paul said was alive." This man never trem- 
bled before the proclaimed truth, as did his predeces- 
sor, Felix. Nay, to his intense worldliness, such an 
effect would be only the development of the most piti- 
able weakness ; and his prodigious self-conceit, the 
blindness of his moral perceptions, and the desperate- 
ness of his depravity, were exhibited when, in violation 
of every law of even worldly and judicial propriety, he 
interrupted the defense of his prisoner with the insult- 
ing declaration, " Thou art beside thyself!" 

Of how large a class is he a type ! Ah ! how many 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 275 



there are who, Festus-like, treat the gospel as a 
system with regard to which they have no interest : 
which is just nothing to them, and which is treated 
by them with generally respectful, but icy indifference 
and neglect. 

In this prisoner, this really educated man, this deep 
thinker, this mighty orator, this Christian, you be- 
hold one occupying a directly opposite moral position. 
He sees in Christianity both the wisdom, and power of 
God. He sees in it the divinely-provided supply of 
the great spiritual wants of every human soul ; he feels 
its claims, its duties, its objects, to be of such over- 
whelming importance that because of them he has 
cheerfully surrendered every thing the world calls de- 
sirable — position, scholarly ease, ambitious prospects; 
for them he is ready and willing at any moment, if 
need be, to suffer martyrdom. 

Festus, the world-absorbed man, thinks Paul, the 
Christianity- absorbed man, mad : Paul knows that Fes- 
tus is spiritually insane. These two men, therefore, 
represent the extremes of worldliness and godliness. 

But, between these two extremes stands Agrippa, the 
representative man, with whom we have more especially 
to do ; who represents that large class of whom it may 
*be said, that they are not, like Festus, entirely uncon- 
cerned and reckless about the gospel ; nor yet, like 
Paul, altogether and decidedly in favor of and com- 
mitted to it. In him, therefore, you see the represent- 
ative of those whose convictions have been aroused, 
whose emotions have been excited, but who are neither 



276 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



entirely persuaded not to be nor to be Christians ; who, 
when good influences gather strongly around them, are 
sometimes almost persuaded to become Christians — ^al- 
most persuaded to yield to a pleading Saviour, and a 
striving Spirit, but are never, altogether. 

To Agrippa, as the representative of this class, I 
shall now direct your attention. It is this representa- 
tive relation, which throws its chief interest around his 
name. To us the fact that he was a king, high in 
power, and exalted among his fellow-men ; the fact 
that he was lineally connected with the great Herod 
and Mariamne, is comparatively of no importance. But 
the simple fact, that for once he occupied the same 
moral position in relation to the gospel that many, very 
many, now occupy — this is what makes him and his 
career worthy of our special attention and study ; and 
with this record of him now open before us, I submit 
to you the following remarks suggested by it : 

1. In regard to the matter of a man } s becoming a 
Christian, it vnay be considered, as it is presented in 
the Bible, in its relation to God and to the man him- 
self. 

According to the former, the efficiency is all of God ; 
according to the latter, the duty is all ours. And an 
atonement having been provided, the convicting Spirit 
having been given, we are called upon to do our duty, 
with the assurance, that what we can not do shall be 
accomplished by the grace of God for us. Hence the 
gospel calls upon every man to repent of his sins, and 
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, with the assurance. 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 277 



based upon the promise of God, that he shall be par- 
doned, justified, and saved. It is, as thus explained, 
with regard to the matter of your becoming a Christian, 
as related to your own duty, that I now desire to ad- 
dress you. 

2. The method, God has adopted to induce men to 
become Christians, is persuasion. 

No man ever was, or ever will be, forced to become 
a follower of Christ. Force, the opposite of persuasion, 
has to do with matter, not with mind, which was cre- 
ated free, to be influenced, directed, and controlled by 
motives addressed to the understanding, comprehended 
by the reason, felt by the heart ; and the process of 
bringing these motives to bear upon the soul, the Bible 
calls persuasion. Thus in our Lord's account of the 
rich man and Lazarus, when describing the former as 
in torment, begging that some one might be sent to 
warn his five living brethren, Abraham is represented 
as saying, ' • If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from 
the dead.*' His enemies charged that " Paul had per- 
suaded and turned away much people." In the syna- 
gogue at Corinth, during three months, he continued 
'•to persuade them in the things concerning the king- 
dom of Grod;'* and to the Corinthian church he wrote, 
in explanation of his burning zeal for the conversion of 
men, " knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade 
men." 

Agrippa felt this persuasive power, for while clad in 
the robes of royalty, sitting as a judge, surrounded by 



278 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



a court, he said to the prisoner, " Almost thou per- 
suadest me to be a Christian." 

No man " ever did, or ever will become a Christian 
only as he is persuaded to be one, as he perceives and 
feels the power of that vast array of motives drawn from 
heaven with all its glories ; from earth with its Calvary 
cross ; from his own spiritual wants, and from the fear- 
ful retribution awaiting the impenitent. Friends, if 
you are waiting for something different, for some audi- 
ble voice from heaven to address you, for some miracu- 
lous power to overwhelm you, then your waiting is vain, 
and you may wait until the dismal terrors of eternal 
death shall gather about you, from amid whose thick- 
ening gloom shall be heard the fearful words, " I have 
called and ye refused ; ye have set at naught my counsel 
and would none of my reproof; therefore I will laugh 
at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." 

3. It is a fact , that but feiv ever come under the 
influence of the gospel, ivho, at some period of their 
life , are not, just as Agrippa was, almost persuaded. 

The circumstances, under which different persons are 
brought to feel the power of the persuasive influence of 
Christianity, are different. Some have felt them in 
similar circumstances with this man. They have heard 
those, in whom they could not but have the most im- 
plicit confidence, relate their Christian experience ; the 
simple story of how they were brought out of nature's 
darkness into the light of the gospel, and in this way 
the most powerful evidence of the truth of religion has 
come to them. It was this that chiefly moved King 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 279 



Agrippa. This, his experience, was Paul's great, in- 
controvertible argument, and therefore he rehearsed it 
to the crowd from the staircase in the castle of Antonia ; 
he related it again before the august Sanhedrim, and 
he repeated it in melting utterances before the Cesarean 
court, for well he knew there was no answering that. 
So have I seen men weep as they listened to a convert's 
account of his conversion, the wonderfulness of the 
change he had experienced, the sweetnest of his first 
love, the glory of his new-born hopes, and I knew that 
in their secret heart they said, " 0, that we could feel 
as he does I" and I was sure, that they were almost per- 
suaded to become Christians. • 

Others have felt thus under some powerful sermon, 
by which their judgments were convinced, their con- 
sciences aroused, the spell of the world temporarily 
broken ; and thoughts of duty to the loving Father, the 
amazing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the nearness 
of death, and the fearfulness of a judgment to come, 
have so moved them that they were, then and there, 
almost persuaded. 

Others still have felt this during seasons of affliction, 
when the long-suffering God, seeing that mercies failed 
'to move them, has sent dispensations of judgment. 
Perhaps a dear babe, lovelier in their eyes than an 
angel, has been taken from them and laid in the cold 
grave ; or a tender wife, devoted husband, cherished 
father, or fond mother, has been called away, and in the 
hour of blinding sorrow, when they felt the emptiness 
of earthly things, the utter powerlessness of the world 



280 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



to heal their lacerated hearts, the transient nature of 
all beneath the skies, then, then, they have been 
almost persuaded. 

And still others have felt thus, when afflicted in their 
own persons. While lying on beds of sickness, pain and 
languishing, they have had time to think upon their 
sins ; the folly of a worldly life ; when they have felt 
the need of the comforts and supports, of something bet- 
ter than the world could give; the consciousness of 
their entire unpreparedness to die and go into the pres- 
ence of immaculate holiness ; then, as they approached 
so near that they could hear the roar of the Jordan's 
black billows, they have cried, " ! if God will only let 
me get well, I will become a Christian.' ' They recov- 
ered, but they did not become disciples of Jesus. Ah ! 
they were only " almost," not " altogether" persuaded. 

Many others have been deeply affected, during sea- 
sons of revival. The Spirit strove, Christians pleaded 
with, and anxious friends wept over them. Perhaps 
they tried to pray for themselves, and went so far as 
to ask Christians to pray for them. But the revival 
passed, the harvest passed, the summer ended, and alas ! 
they were not saved, simply because they were not 
fully, but almost persuaded. And others still have felt 
thus, as they have stood by the deathbed of a wicked 
man. They saw him toss from side to side in agony, 
his once strong frame emaciated to weakness, the cold 
sweat of death beading his brow, his eyeballs rolling in 
terror, despair gleaming from his blanched face. They 
heard his wild shrieks, as he vainly endeavored to escape 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 281 



from the icy grasp of the king of terrors. At last they 
saw death triumphant. All was still : but how dark. 
gloomy and boding was that stillness ! They could not 
but cry. "Heaven save us from such a death 1" But 
they saw another scene, a Christian's death. There all 
was peace and unearthly tranquillity. Smiles wreathed 
the dying face, an opening heaven shed its glory in 
that chamber. They could almost hear the rustling of 
the wings of angels, and as they heard the dying saint 
calmly say. " Farewell earth, farewell loved kindred. 
meet me in heaven : welcome, welcome, home of my 
soul, 

•' ' Lend, lend your wings; I mount, I fly, 

grave where is thy victory. 

death where is thy sting?' : ' 

then they were almost persuaded. 

4. Let us now inquire, after some of the reasons 
on account of which, suck persons are kept from full 
persuasion. 

It is not the lack of evidence of their duty, nor the 
existence of any impossibility in the way of their per- 
forming it. They have memories, and can recall their 
sins ; consciences, and can feel their guilt and obliga- 
tion : wills, and they can decide to make an honest. 
thorough effort to become Christians. There is a 
mercy-seat, and they can go to it. They have both 
time and opportunity to seek the Lord, and they are 
urged so to do by motives high as heaven, deep as hell, 
and broad as their eternal interests, and yet they are 
not fully persuaded. Why not ? 



282 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Some are not, because of attachment to a particular 
sin which they will not abandon. This is supposed 
to have been the case with Agrippa. It certainly is 
with many. They are attached, it may be, to some 
single sin, which they well know they must immediately 
abandon if they become Christians, and they will not 
do it. Friend, is this the case with you ? Then let 
me assure you, that that which keeps you from Christ 
now, will shut you out of heaven hereafter. That one 
sin, thus clung to, will be your eternal ruin. 

Others remain thus, because of a deep-settled impres- 
sion, that to become Christians they must become un- 
happy. To them religion seems a melancholy thing. 
Strange delusion ! Eor either they ought to become 
Christians, or they ought not. If they ought not, that 
ends the matter ; but if they ought, then they should 
know that such is the arrangement of moral govern- 
ment that only in the course which a moral being ought 
to take, can his highest enjoyment be found. You think 
that to be a Christian is to surrender happiness. Tell 
me, are worldlings, devotees of fashion and pleasure, 
aspirants for temporary fame, with no hope in the 
mercy of God> no endeavors to meet the solemn respon- 
sibilities of existence, no preparation for eternity, no 
Saviour — happy ? Is there not within them an aching 
void ? Tell me, Christian, does your religion forbid a 
single lawful pleasure — the outburst and legitimate 
gratification of any original faculty of your nature ? 
Tell me, were you ever profoundly happy until Jesus 
spake your sins forgiven ? Tell me, Paul, amidst all 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 283 



thy trials for Christ's sake, wast thou miserable ? Nay ! 
I hear his response, " Always rejoicing." " Our pres- 
ent light affliction, which is but for a moment, work- 
eth out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory." 

Others shrink from the duties -which religion im- 
poses. They imagine that they could never perform 
them. To them, Christ's yoke seems not easy but gall- 
ing ; his burdens not light but heavy . They forget 
that the promise is, " My grace shall be sufficient for 
thee." 

And still others are not fully persuaded now, be- 
cause they vainly anticipate a more favorable oppor- 
tunity in the future — a delusion which has ruined 
untold thousands. 

5. The position which Agrippa occupied, and 
which all those of whom he is the representative oc- 
cupy, is one of both peculiar interest and danger. 

Assuredly it is one of peculiar interest. Heaven 
feels it to be such. God the Father, God the Son, 
God the Holy Ghost, every angel, and all the redeemed 
thus regard it. Earth feels it to be such. Every 
Christian, and even worldly companions, as well as the 
powers of darkness, thus regard it. The individual 
himself is conscious of it. Let it be known in a con- 
gregation, that there is one person there in this condi- 
tion, and the attention of all will be attracted to him, 
and, while joy thrills every renewed soul, it is accom- 
panied by a tremulous anxiety, for every intelligent 
Christian knows that a man may be almost and yet 



284 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



never fully persuaded. Agrippa was, and yet he lived 
and died an impenitent sinner ; and this has been the 
history of thousands on thousands since. They came 
up to the very door of salvation but never entered. 

Moreover, it is a position of imminent danger, for 
if a man does not yield then, the probability is that he 
never will. In the case we have considered, I am 
deeply impressed that, when Paul had made his mighty 
appeal to Agrippa, and fondly hoped to see him bow to 
acknowledged truth, but instead of this heard him 
merely respond, " Almost thou persuadest me to be a 
Christian," the apostle's heart sank within him under 
the conviction that the king was a lost man, in view of 
the fact that if he was not fully persuaded then he 
never would be ; and I detect a tone of profound sad- 
ness in his reply. Loosing his hold upon the indi- 
vidual soul he exclaimed, " I w^ould to God that not 
only thou, but all those that hear me this day, were both 
almost and altogether such as I am, except these 
bonds." And when you remember that guilt is in the 
ratio of light, how fearful does the accumulation of it 
in such a, case appear ! Better, far better had it been 
for Agrippa never to have heard the gospel, than to 
have heard it, come to the luminous point where par- 
don and salvation were within his reach, and then 
made the fearful* pause ! friend, is this your case ? 
Are you even now almost persuaded ? If so, I rejoice, 
but with great trembling, for I know that you stand 
on the crisis-point of your destiny. I know that you 
may resist the good influences which are urging you to 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 285 



the cross, lose your serious impressions, and be for ever 
lost. Full well I know that eternal things are sus- 
pended upon the decision to which you will soon arrive. 
Suffer me to beseech you, by the weight of years of 
accumulated sin, by the mightiness and justice of God's 
claims, by the tears, blood; wounds, and agony of 
Christ, by the freeness and fullness of his atonement, 
by the strivings of the Spirit which may soon leave 
you for ever, by all the endless interests of your im- 
mortal soul, by the joys of the redeemed and the 
groans of the lost ; yea, as the ambassador of Christ, 
as though God did beseech you by me, I pray you, in 
Christ's stead, " Be ye reconciled to God;" be not 
only almost, but altogether persuaded in your inmost 
soul to say, 

"I'll go to Jesus, though my sins 
Have like a mountain rose ; 
I know his courts, I'll enter in, 
Whatever may oppose. 

" Prostrate I'll he before his throne, 
And there my guilt confess, 
I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone 
Without his pardoning grace. 

" Perhaps he will admit my plea, 
Perhaps will hear my prayer ; 
But if I perish, I will go, 
And perish only there." 



XII 



t mnnbtvUb lllaa 



THE JAILOR, 

C 1 1 C o it ir £ r t e & fjjt a it ♦ 



" Sovereign grace hath power alone 
To subdue a heart of stone ; 
But the moment grace is felt, 
The hardest heart begins to melt." 



The historical associations connected with the sub- 
ject of the present lecture are full of interest. The 
city of Philippi, in which he lived, named after Philip, 
King of Macedon, who was its founder and father of 
Alexander the Great, is famous in history as the lo- 
cality of many important events. There the decisive 
battle between Brutus and Antony was fought, after 
which, chagrined by his defeat, the former, who had 
slain the great Caesar, slew himself. You may remem- 
ber what effective use Shakespeare makes of this event 
in his tragedy of " Julius Caesar/' where he represents 
Brutus, sitting alone in his tent near Sardis, as visited 
by the specter of the emperor, who tells him in weird 
words, " Thou shalt see me at Philippi.'' 

Bat omitting all other facts of general history con- 
nected with this city, I call your attention to that which 
gives its chief interest to this memorable place in the 
minds of all Christian students. Here, so far as we 

13 



290 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



are informed, the gospel was first preached in Europe. 
Here the first Christian church was organized on that 
continent. Over most of that vast extent Christian 
churches now exist, and are numbered by thousands on 
thousands, but that little one of Philippi was the first 
of them all. Of that first European church, the repre- 
sentative man to whom I shall now direct your atten- 
tion was a member, and I propose, preliminarily, to 
notice how strangely a sovereign God brought the 
gospel in contact ivith his pagan mind. 

Christianity spread quite generally through Asia 
Minor before a single ray of its light had pierced the 
moral darkness which covered the adjoining continent. 
But the time came when the morning that had arisen 
over the hills of Palestine and enlightened so many of 
the tribes of Asia, was to spread its glory over the 
adjoining millions who had so long t sat in "the val- 
ley of the shadow of death.* 7 It had been in Paul's 
heart before this to go to Rome, but Providence hedged 
up his way, for had he then gone he certainly would 
have been expelled by the edict of the Emperor Clau- 
dius, which during that period banished all Jews from 
the imperial city. He then essayed to go into other 
portions of Asia, but was forbidden by the Holy Spirit, 
and while uncertain as to his ultimate destination, he 
reached ancient Troas, and there, in a night vision, " a. 
man of Macedonia stood before him saying, ' Come 
over into Macedonia and help us.' " That was the con- 
densed cry of Europe for the gospel. To a scholarly 
mind, what an intensity of interest encircles Paul at 



THE CONVERTED MAN. 291 



Troas ! He stands in the very footprints of the heroes 
of the Iliad and the iEneid. That wave-swept shore had 
been covered by the vast invading armies of Darius and 
Xerxes, and fourteen centuries after Paul, those storied 
hills resounded with the war-cries of the Moslem, as the 
surge of Mohammedanism foamed around the last bul- 
wark of Koine. While, therefore, we think of Paul at 
Troas, the shades of iEneas, Achilles, Darius, Xerxes, 
Mohammed, and their hosts, gather around him. But 
how superior in moral grandeur is his central position ! 
Like theirs, his eye is upon Europe. Like iEneas, he 
proposes to carry thither the germs of a new empire ; 
but, one whose nature and extent shall eclipse the Ti- 
tanic proportions of Rome. Like Darius and Xerxes, 
he would invade Europe, not for aggrandizement to 
himself and ruin to it, but for its good and God's glory. 
Like Mohammed, he would carry a religion there ; not 
a false one, to be forced on its teeming millions by the 
sword, but that divine Christianity whose only weapon 
is love. Verily the picture of Paul at Troas, gazing 
over the blue waves of the JEgean. toward a world 
whose soil had never been pressed by the foot of a sin- 
gle gospel preacher, hearing the cry of imploring mil- 
lions, is worthy of a place by the side of " Paul in 
chains before Agrippa," or "Paul on Mars Hill." 

In company with Timothy, Luke, and Silas, having 
secured a small vessel, Paul sailed from Asia for Eu- 
rope. ! what a precious freight that vessel bore as 
she parted the billows of that classic sea, containing 
within herself, as did the Mayflower centuries after- 



292 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



wards, the elements of a pure religion, and true civili- 
zation to a new world. As angels saw it glide over the 
dangerous deep, did they not cry, " God speed thee, 
honored ship ! keep quiet the stormy winds, and give 
thee a safe voyage !" 

Having landed at Neapolis, Paul and Silas immedi 
ately went to Philippi, where, learning that the Jews 
had no synagogue, but were wont to meet for prayer at 
the river side, they repaired thither, and there Paul 
preached his first sermon in Europe, the echoes of 
which reverberate to-day through the mighty nations 
that now thrive upon its soil. There the Lord gave 
him his first European convert. There he gathered 
the elements out of which, he organized the first Euro- 
pean gospel church. But soon afterwards the apostles 
were involved in difficulties, and that too by means of a 
woman, one of a strange class who professed to have a 
spirit of divination, and by their soothsaying made much 
gain for their employers. Strangely enough, this woman 
followed Paul and Silas through the streets, crying, 
-'These men are the servants of the Most High God, 
which show unto us the way of salvation.'' 1 Fearing 
that such testimony might bring discredit upon Chris- 
tianity, and anxious to show its power over such delu- 
sions, in the name of Jesus Christ, Paul commanded 
the evil spirit to leave her. He was obeyed, and the 
woman restored to her right mind. Their revenue from 
her soothsaying being thus cut off, her masters became 
infuriated, seized Paul and Silas and brought them be- 
fore the magistrates, where, concealing the true cause 



THE CONVERTED MAN. 293 



of their hatred, they charged that " these men, being 
Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach cus- 
toms not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, 
being Romans." The excitement became terrible. The 
magistrates ordered the apostles to be beaten. You 
ought to know, that such scourging among the Romans 
was very different, from the Jewish punishment of the 
same nature. In the latter^ merely thongs or cords 
were used, the number of blows was limited to forty, 
and the practice was to give only thirty-nine. It was 
with reference to this Paul said, 4i Five times received 
I forty stripes save one." The Roman custom was to 
bind the prisoner with cords, and beat him with rods as 
long as the magistrate pleased. With reference to this 
he elsewhere speaks of having been " beaten beyond 
measure," and subsequently, at Corinth, he said that 
he had suffered and been shamefully treated at Phi- 
lippi. 

Imagine that scene, when those two men, the faith- 
ful Silas and the great Paul, were bound, like infamous 
criminals, with cords : their naked backs exposed to 
public gaze> upon which fell the heavy blows of strong- 
armed executioners, causing blood to stream at every 
stroke ! 0, in that hour of ignominy and torture, think 
you not that they remembered the cross on which their 
Lord bore infinitely greater shame and agony for them, 
and that sustaining grace enabled them to glory in suf- 
fering for his sake? The record says that after u they 
had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into 
prison, and charged the jailor to keep them safely." 



294 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Behold now, through this long chain of events, the 
gospel brought from Asia to Europe, from Neapolis to 
Philippi, and then borne into the city prison, whose 
jailor, in the purpose of a sovereign God, is to be among 
the first male converts in Europe, a sheaf amid the first 
fruits of that glorious harvest, which was to be reaped 
on that wide field of paganism. 

It is not probable that your conceptions of this prison 
are correct, for doubtless you think of some such place 
as the jails of our ow^n land, where every necessity of 
prisoners is supplied. Ear different were the prisons 
of the old world, in that olden time. They were dismal 
places, destitute of every thing save what was essential 
to the mere continuance of existence. The " inner 
prisons,' 7 especially, such as the apostles were confined 
in, were damp, cold, pestilential cells, from which all 
light w^as excluded, and the very chains rusted on the 
limbs of their miserable occupants. These " inner pris- 
ons" had throughout the Roman empire a reputation 
so full of horror, that strong and daring men shud- 
dered at the thought of confinement in them. As 
w T as natural, in the civilization which then prevailed, 
the jailors of such prisons were rough, harsh, and 
cruel. 

It requires only a small effort of the imagination to 
reproduce the scene, which exhibits these two scourged 
Christian men, as released from the officers and deliv- 
ered to the jailor, with the command that he should 
"keep them safe." We see them, in their pitiable con- 
dition, led through the outer into the inner prison, 



THE CONVERTED MAN. 295 



passing by cell after cell, whence the clanking of chains 
can be distinctly heard, until the appointed dungeon 
is reached, into which the jailor unfeelingly " thrusts' ; 
them, bleeding and faint ; and then, as if not satisfied 
with this, we see him fasten their limbs, still quivering 
from the scourging, into the " stocks," where they can 
not ease their pain-racked bodies by a change of posi- 
tion, and then leaves them alone in the cold, clammy 
darkness. The magistrates who condemned them are 
sleeping tranquilly on their pillows. The jailor, satis- 
fied that all is safe and secure, has sought his couch ; 
but neither repose nor sleep can be enjoyed by these 
tortured Christians. The still hour of midnight has 
come. Silence reigns through the dismal corridors 
of this dismal prison, only intensified by the measured 
tramp of the sentinel. But, hearken ! That all-per- 
vading silence is broken. Sounds are heard such as 
never before echoed along those dreary walls. The 
criminal prisoners start up from their uneasy slumbers 
and listen with amazement ; for these sounds are not 
piteous groans or lamentations, nor the sullen cries 
of anguish, or the wild ravings of agony ; nay, nay ! 
they are the utterances of prayer and praise to the 
Christians' God, issuing out of the " inner prison. 5 ' 
And, lo ! the Hearer of prayer, the Grod of grace and 
nature, answers; an earthquake shakes the prison to 
its foundation, its doors fly open, the chains fall from 
its inmates. The jailor aroused from sleep, and sup- 
posing the prisoners to have escaped, draws his sword 
to kill himself, for he knows that his life is the price 



296 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



of their safety. But Paul cries, u Do thyself no harm, 
for we are all here." His fears subside ; his heathen 
heart wonders and trembles. Bearing a torch, he 
rushes toward them ; and, strange as it may seem, poor 
pagan that he was, he imploringly asked the most im- 
portant question that ever fell from human lips — " Sirs, 
what must I do to be saved ?" Ah ! that was the very 
cry that arose from the lips of three thousand convicted 
souls at Pentecost. That was the very cry which has 
been uttered by every convert of the cross during these 
eighteen hundred years, in whatever land or circum- 
stances. That was the very cry you uttered when you 
saw yourself a poor, condemned sinner. 

Tell me now, if you can, with what exultant joy, in 
that strange place, at that midnight hour, while the 
glaring torchlight flickers on the damp walls, surrounded 
by loosed prisoners, among whom stands the jailor's 
family, all waiting to hear the reply, Paul, unmindful 
of his own sufferings, preaches to them Jesus — his 
life, his work, his agony, his death, his saving power, 
all condensed in that one sublime sentence, " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' 
" The storm is changed into a calm." Like Elijah in 
the wilderness, after the earthquake and the hurricane, 
" the still, small voice" comes to this trembling soul — 
he does believe ; he grasps the blessed assurance, even 
as Paul himself had done in similar circumstances ; he 
receives Christ as his Saviour, and sweec peace settles 
down on his troubled spirit. He believes and is saved. 
Behold the evidence that he is a converted man in the 



THE CONVERTED MAX. 297 



change of his feelings toward the prisoners, whom bat 
a few hours before he had treated so cruelly. His 
whole demeanor toward them is characterized by the 
utmost tenderness. He takes them out of the inner 
prison into the court, washes the clotted gore from 
their wounds and gives them food; and the record 
adds, that { * he and all his were straightway baptized/' 
which duty Paul must have urged upon him as the 
very next step after his' conversion. And it further 
adds, that " he rejoiced, believing in God, with all his 
house." Picture now that strange family scene. The 
city is hushed in sleep, ignorant of what has transpired 
in its gloomy prison. See the rough jailor encircled 
by his household, while every face beams with an ex- 
pression which never shone from them before, gazing 
with tears of mingled sorrow and joy upon the two per- 
secuted and abused strangers, who now stand before 
them as their deliverers from the thralldom and guilt of 
sin, and the means by which they have been ushered 
into the glorious liberty of the gospel. 

Only one thing more is recorded of this man. 
Alarmed by the earthquake, which phenomenon the 
Romans always associated with the anger of the gods, 
in the morning the magistrates sent an order to release 
his prisoners, which order he communicated, and bade 
them go in peace. After this we read no more of him 
personally : but we know that a Christian church was 
organized at Philippi, which was especially dear to 
Paul, of which doubtless this convert was a member : 
we" know that this church nourished greatly, and thrice 

13* 



298 REPRESENTATIVE MEX. 



sent money to the apostle to aid him in his poverty, 
which he thus affectionately acknowledges in his epistle 
to them : " I am full, having received of Epaphroditus 
the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet 
smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. But 
my God shall supply all your need according to his 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 
And now I pray you to observe, 
1. How beautifully this narrative illustrates the 
truth, that a sovereign God often " moves in a mys- 
terious way his wonders to perform" 

He confines his work to no places. He made a pil- 
low of rude stones to Jacob, a public highway to Saul 
of Tarsus, a chariot to the eunuch, the boughs of a tree 
to Zaccheus, a cross of ignominy to the thief, and a 
Roman prison to this jailor, all equally the gate of 
heaven. He does not confine himself to any particular 
method of awakening sinners- Sometimes he brings 
the truth in contact with souls in one way, and some- 
times in another. One man is aroused under a sermon, 
another by the exhortation of a pious Christian, and 
another during a prevailing prayer. One is awakened 
by the thundering of Sinai, another by the love-tones 
of Calvary and another by some striking dispensation 
of Providence. Saul was stricken to the earth, falling 
like a dead man, by a light brighter than the noonday 
sun. This jailor was aroused both from natural and 
spiritual sleep by an earthquake. Indeed, there are 
some men who are so inveterate in their depravity that 
nothing but a signal display of omnipotence can arouse 



THE CONVERTED MAN. 299 



them. Such an one was our representative man. God 
knew, that nothing but a terrible physical phenomenon 
could satisfy him of the divinity of the gospel Paul 
preached, and of his own consequent guilt as a sinner, 
and therefore he sent an earthquake. 

brethren ! this sovereign God, who makes the ele- 
ments his servants, who rides upon the whirlwind and 
directs the storm, who can work in ten thousand ways 
and none can hinder ; who speaks in the thunder, to 
which a world listens with awe; who " hath his way 
in the whirlwind:*' who brandisheth like a sword the 
lightning that cleaves the sky, and makes the earth 
quake beneath the revealing of his power, as well as 
operates through more quiet and beautiful agencies; 
who can and does subordinate every element in nature, 
and every event in providence to the consummation of 
his purposes of grace — this awful, glorious God is ours ! 
He is the hearer of prayer. To him, amid the gloom 
of the inner prison of the Philippian jail, Paul and 
Silas prayed, although they knew not how he would 
answer. But while they prayed, in a manner perhaps 
surprising to themselves the answer came. The old 
prison rocked, the doors burst open, their feet were 
loosed from the stocks, and what was more and grander, 
the hard rebellious heart of the jailor was touched, and 
from his pallid lips they heard for the first time in Eu- 
rope the cry, which sounded more melodious in their 
ears than earth's sweetest music could have done, 
" What must I do to be saved?" Thus you see that 
what ordinary means would have utterly failed to ac- 



300 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



complish, God accomplished by extraordinary means. 
You can easily imagine with what complete indifference, 
if not absolute scorn, this man would have heard a ser- 
mon from this Jew, how he would have ridiculed the 
prayer meeting in which Lydia was converted, but he 
could not withstand the method which a sovereign God 
adopted to bring him to the cross. Of all men in Phi- 
lippi he was to human appearance the most hopeless, 
and yet in this way he became the first male convert. 
From this, oh people of God, take encouragement to 
faith in prayer ! He knows the way to every human 
heart. He can reach those whom it seems impossible 
for you to influence. They will not come to you, he 
can go to them in just the way which they will not 
resist. He can find them in their secret places, and 
make them too tremble. He can trouble them too at 
the midnight hour. Pray then, pray earnestly, perse- 
veringly ; pray in faith, and the wonder-working Je- 
hovah Jesus shall surprise you, even as he did Paul 
and Silas. Yea, I hear a voice from the throne saying 
to us, " As thy faith is, so shall it be unto you." 

2. This narrative illustrates the effect, which the 
gospel always produces on minds aroused to a se?ise 
of their true spiritual condition. It always induces, 
at least substantially, the utterance of the question 
which the trembling jailor asked. 

But, you may inquire, was this man religiously con- 
victed, or was he only alarmed in view of the fact that 
his life was in jeopardy, according to Roman law, from 
the escape of his prisoners, whom he supposed had fled, 



THE CONVERTED MAX. 301 



and merely frightened by the awful phenomenon of the 
earthquake ? There are many, I am aware, who, hav- 
ing a theory to support, labor to establish this inter- 
pretation. On this account, let us look somewhat 
closely into this matter. Such affirm that when he 
asked " What must I do to be saved?" all he meant 
was, " What shall I do to save my life exposed to dan- 
ger by the earthquake, and imperiled by the escape of 
my prisoners?" Now, that this is entirely false, so 
false that no man would ever have thought of it if he 
had not a wrong theory to prop up, is apparent from 
considerations like these : 

1. If such had been the mere state of his mind, why 
should he ask this question of these two strangers, nei- 
ther of whom could have answered it ? 

2. But the earthquake had subsided and no prisoner 
had escaped. Paul distinctly told him, "We are all 
here," before he asked this question. Whatever fears, 
therefore, he might have had. produced by these causes, 
must have been dispelled at the time when he made this 
inquiry. 

3. Moreover, look at the circumstances. He knew 
that all through the streets of Philippi the Pythoness 
had proclaimed that these men were the " servants of 
the Most High God, sent to show to the people the way 
of salvation." How natural it was for him to believe 
this now, when he saw that the Most High God, in an- 
swer to their prayer, had mysteriously released them, 
and that the guilt of his cruel treatment of them should 
burst upon him, and that the Holy Spirit which ac- 



302 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



companied the ministry of the apostles should do his 
office-work, and reveal to him his sinfulness and danger 
in view of what they had preached and he had done, 
so that, after his first alarm was over, he should stand 
a sinner, convicted of sin, its guilt and danger ! 

4. The answer which Paul gave to his question is 
conclusive. The great apostle perfectly understood the 
condition, and feelings of the man who stood trembling 
before him. It is not within the range of possibility 
that he should have misunderstood, the nature and im- 
port of this inquiry. He was deeply versed in all the 
developments of human nature, and all the operations 
of the truths of the gospel, when applied by the Spirit 
to the human soul, and his understanding of it is fully 
developed in the answer he gave: " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." How ut- 
terly inappropriate this reply was on the theory we are 
considering! " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?" 
Why, that would expose his life to the most imminent 
peril. Nay, nay ! Both Paul and Silas saw in this 
man an awakened sinner, aroused, convicted, inquiring 
what he should do to be saved from the guilt and con- 
sequences of sin. In this view alone is the answer ap- 
propriate. This is the answer which Christianity has 
given, does, and always will give to this cry of human 
nature, enlightened to a consciousness of its peril. And 
my point is, that this is the effect which the gospel al- 
ways produces upon awakened souls. This effect it 
produced upon each of us who are now Christians, and 
how often have we heard it expressed in the earnest 



THE CONVERTED MAN. 303 



words of others who were seeking salvation ! ! from 
how many human hearts throughout the world, where 
the true gospel is preached and attended by divine en- 
ergy, is this cry now being uttered ! Heaven have 
mercy on ministers whose preaching never produces 
this effect ! Heaven have mercy on churches in whose 
congregations this wail is never heard ! Heaven pity 
those colleges among whose students this inquiry is 
never made ! Heaven pity the man, who, for himself, 
or the woman, who, for herself, has never cried " What 
must I do to be saved?" 

3. Let ns now analyze this question itself, which 
the jailor asked, and which exhibits the universal 
effect of the gospel ivhen applied by the Holy Spirit 
to human souls. 

What does it involve ? 

1. As before implied, it involves a deep conscious- 
ness of the fact of our sinfulness, and an earnest desire 
to be saved from its guilt, pollution and penalty. Alas ! 
neither this consciousness nor desire exist in any soul 
where the gospel is not thus applied. The only reason 
w T hy all men do not ask this question is, that they have 
them not. If they had, they would utter this cry with 
their next breath. It is the existence of these two ele- 
ments, consciousness of guilt and desire to be saved 
from it, in the soul, which extorts the utterance " What 
shall I do to be saved?" And inasmuch as nothing 
but the pure truth of God, and the attending Spirit of 
God. can produce these results, how important is it 
that that truth should be preached, plainly, earnestly, 



304 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



and powerfully, and that the influences of that Spirit 
should be sought, should be implored incessantly and 
importunately ! 

2. It involves a sincere conviction that something 
must be done in regard to this matter. Ah ! that 
" What must I dof indicates the clear consciousness 
that further carelessness or indifference is out of the 
question; that even a postponement of positive action 
is not thought of. And this is reasonable and proper. 
Just as when a man awakes to a realization that a 
deadly disease has fastened on his body, he feels that 
something must be done ; just as w T hen imminent dan- 
ger threatens property or life, all feel that something 
must be done ; so when a man's eyes are opened to see 
his guilt, to see that sin like a moral leprosy has per- 
meated his soul with its pollution, that the terrible pen- 
alties of violated law are suspended over him, and that 
his well-being, not only during the life which now is, 
but that eternal one which is to come, is momently 
jeopardized, how can he but feel that something must 
immediately be done ? What other call to action can 
be so loud and imperative ? What are the claims of 
the world, whether pertaining to business, to pleasure, 
to mere intellectual advancement, or scholarly fame, 
compared with this present and awful necessity ? For 
hearken to that unsolved problem, given out by the 
Man of Calvary, which has come to us over the wrecks 
of eighteen centuries, "What shall it profit a man if 
he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" In 
fact, a general impression exists in almost every mind 



THE CONVERTED MAN. 305 



that some preparation is requisite in order to meet a 
holy God, that something at some time must be done 
in order to be prepared for those great spiritual realities 
which await it in the future. Indeed, this is a sug- 
gestion of analogy, a dictate of reason, an instinct of 
nature, an impulsion of conscience, the farewell lesson 
of all experience. But he who, like this jailor, has 
received the truth of the gospel in his intelligence, and 
feels the workings of the Holy Spirit in his heart, thus 
revealing to him the necessities of his present condition 
and the imperativeness of present duty, feels aroused to 
immediate action. In his ears sound from heaven and 
earth the words " Delay not, delay not !" 

3. It inyolves a clear understanding as to to ho is called 
upon to act. Therefore, you observe, the question is 
not " What shall God the Father do ?" Nay, he has 
been "doing" all our lives long. In providence he has 
been sustaining, blessing us perpetually. Out of his 
word he has been calling, " My son, give me thy 
heart!" "Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, 
and be ye saved." The question is not " What shall 
God the Son do ?" Nay, he hath loved as man never 
loved, wept as man never wept, suffered as man never 
suffered, died as man never died, arisen from the dead 
as man never arose, ascended to heaven in his glorified 
atonement body, sprinkled the mercy-seat with atoning 
blood, and, on the basis of his own accepted merit, in- 
tercedes for us poor, miserable sinners. The question 
is not " What shall God the Holy Ghost do ?" Nay, 
he hath come to ' i convict the world of sin, of right- 



306 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



eousness, and of judgment to come." He strives with 
us, woos and would win us to duty. The question is 
not " What shall angels, or ministers, or Christians do 
for us?" Nay, it is, " What shall /do? I, the sin- 
ner, I, the guilty one, I, the needy one, I, who have 
done what I ought not to have done and left undone 
what I ought to have done, I ; whose interests are in- 
volved and jeopardized, I, who shall either be saved or 
lost, either sing in glory or wail in woe — what shall I 
do? No one has, no one can have the interest at 
stake that I have in the condition and destiny of my 
own immortal soul." 

4. Observe, I pray you, the intensity embodied in 
that " What, tvhat must I do ?" It implies^ willing- 
ness to do any thing. In it I see a yielding of the 
heart, a submission of the will which indicates a gen- 
uine, thorough work of grace. Oh ! when the jailor 
cried " What must I do ?" the great work was already 
done in his soul ; the chief obstacles were removed, the 
worst difficulties overcome. When Saul of Tarsus, 
lying upon the pavement before the gate of Damascus, 
overwhelmed with the blinding glory of a revealed 
Christ, cried, for the first time, "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do ?" the mightiest work was accom- 
plished. His heart was changed, his will subdued, 
and that transcendent intellect, that strong, profound, 
cultured spirit, which had been so full of elements of 
antagonism to the gospel, then entirely emptied of 
them, with all its starry powers furled, lay, in all the 
simplicity of a little child, at the feet of him who was 



THE CONVERTED MAN, 307 



pierced for its redemption, willing to do any thing. 
Therefore it is that when pious parents hear that the 
son for whom they have prayed for years ; or a devoted 
minister learns that one in his congregation to whom 
he has long preached, and for whose salvation he has 
yearned ; or a Christian teacher w T ho aims at some- 
thing more than the mere intellectual culture of his 
pupils ; I say, when these hear that that son, or that 
hearer, or that pupil is sincerely asking this question, 
gladness takes the place of anxiety in their hearts, tears ot 
solicitude are succeeded by those of joy. They see in it 
the work of the truth and Spirit of God. They see in 
it answer to prayer. They see in it the dawning ot 
the clay. 

4. Our last duty is to consider the answer which 
was given to this question. 

Observe what he was told to do. He w T as not tolcl 
that all men were to be saved, and that, therefore, he 
need give himself no uneasiness. He was not told to 
go to work and reform his life and make himself a 
better man. He was not told to wait until he should 
have more feeling, or directed to pray or continue to 
seek salvation ; no ! he was told " Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved !*' This he was 
told to do at once, then and there. And he did at 
once, then and there, commit his trembling soul to 
Christ, receive him as his Saviour, and believing re- 
joiced in a present salvation and walked immediately 
forward in the path of present duty. And, just the 
answer which was given to the jailor's question is given 



308 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



by Christianity to every inquirer. Just what he did 
is the duty, and the privilege of every such an one. 

But, ray brethren, how difficult it is to explain this, 
exactly describe this to others ! Blessed be God, we 
know what it is by experience ; but how difficult it is to 
make it plain to those who have not experienced it, and 
what trouble many inquirers have in understanding 
what they are to do when told to ' i believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ." Somehow this poor pagan jailor had 
none. He was simply told to believe, and he did. He 
had no metaphysical or theological embarrassment. He 
simply believed the truth concerning Christ as a Sav- 
iour, and trusted in him as his own. And this is saving 
faith — faith which brings salvation ; simply this secures 
all the infinitude of good embraced in the atonement. 
! I know how natural it is for an awakened sinner to 
doubt this, to disbelieve that simply this can be all that 
is required. Ah, he says, "I deserve to suffer;" and 
so he does, but Jesus was bruised for his iniquities and 
wounded for his transgressions. He says, " I deserve 
that God should forsake me and not hear my cry ;" so 
he does, but when the dear Christ took our place, when 
he " who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in him," when he 
hung on the cross, his Father forsook him, and there- 
fore he uttered that agonizing wail, " My God! my 
God! why hast thou forsaken me?" Ah! the true 
penitent says, " I deserve to die ; 

& ' Should sudden vengeance seize my breath, 
I must pronounce thee just in death ;' " 



THE CONVERTED MAN. 309 



and so he does, but, glory to the name of Jesus, he 
died for poor sinners, "he tasted death for every man," 
"that whosoever belie veth on hirn might not perish, 
but have everlasting life." Yea, he wrought out and 
brought in everlasting righteousness, which, with all 
the infinitude of its merit, u is unto and upon every 
one that belie veth." ! this is a mystery of grace! 
Before the wealth of the love, the divinity of the full- 
ness, the godhood of the freeness this method of salva- 
tion embodies, angels stand amazed, redeemed souls bow 
in profoundest adoration ; and the poor guilty penitent 
who receives it, and finds that through simple faith in 
the blessed Jesus he is made unto him " wisdom, right- 
eousness, sanctification, and redemption," shouts, 

" for a thousand tongues to sing 
My dear Bedeemer's praise, 
The glories of my G-od and King, 

The triumphs of his grace. 

11 My gracious Master and my God, 
Assist me to proclaim, 
To spread, through all the earth abroad, 
The honors of thy name. 

"He breaks the power of reigning sin, 
He sets the prisoner free ; 
His blood can make the foulest clean, 
His blood avails for me." 



XIII. 



%lt Ificcal Iftaa. 



PAUL, 

€ 1] t (& x t it t Han. 



" SLould any one ask me to name the man who of all others has been the 
greatest benefactor of our race, I should say without hesitation, the Apostle 
Paul. His name is the type of activity the most endless, and at the same time 
the most useful that history has cared to preserve." 

" Over the vast extent of the Eoman empire, Paul everywhere projects his 
shadow. What are we, preachers or missionaries of a day, before such a 
man ?" — aIonob. 

" He might have filled hundreds of martyrologies with his sufferings, all of 
which he generously underwent with a soul as calm and serene as the morn- 
ing sun." — Cave. 

"It surely is of no slight importance that the history of the first age of 
Christianity should present us with one undoubted instance of a character 
which unites all the freedom and vigor of a great reformer with all the hum- 
bleness and holiness and self-denial of a great apostle.'" — Stanley. 

" Behold, the apostle of the cross sublime, 

The warned of Heaven, the eloquent, the bold ! 

Who spoke to Athens in her hour of prime, 
Braving the thunders of Olympus old, 
And spreading forth the gospel's snowy fold 

Where heathen altars poured a crimson tide, 
And stern tribunals their decrees unrolled, — 

How does his zeal our innate coldness chide !" 



Earnestly do I beg you to credit me, when I affirm 
that I approach the discussion of the life and character 
of the apostle Paul, with a diffidence which I did not 
feel, in regard to any of those we have already consid- 

14 



314 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



ered. Do you ask why? Do you ask, "Is not his 
one of the most exalted characters, whether considered 
intellectually, religiously, or positionally, the pen of 
history has recorded ?" I answer, Yes. "Does not 
his life abound in incidents, tragic, romantic, sublime ?" 
Yes. "Does not an enduring interest encircle the 
memory of the man, who preached the first gospel ser- 
mon on the continent of Europe, and was the success- 
ful gatherer of Christian churches in proud pagan cities 
and remote Gentile realms?" Yes. " Was he not the 
first man of eminently great intellect and high scholarly 
culture, whom Christianity numbered among her con- 
verts ?" and I answer, Yes. " Why then feel such dif- 
fidence with such a theme before you?" Ah, friend ! 
I feel as I do, just because my theme is what it is — so 
grand, so rich, so vast. Volumes could not exhaust it; 
the highest genius finds within it amplest scope for its 
sublimest efforts. And if it be true, as it doubtless is, 
that greatness is requisite in order to comprehend true 
greatness ; that lofty spiritual attainments are requisite 
in order to appreciate fully the character of one who 
possessed them in an eminent degree, then you will ob- 
viously see additional reasons for humble diffidence 'in 
the present effort. 

Deeply conscious of these myself, I beg you to bear 
them in mind, and then I shall be sure of your kind 
and appreciative sympathy in an effort, which must of 
necessity fall far short of full justice to a character en- 
shrined, in such a history as that of " the chief of the 
apostles." You will bear in mind that, as the title of 



THE GREAT MAN. 315 



this lecture indicates, my main object is to develop the 
evidences of PauVs greatness. 

Preliminarily, let us briefly survey the state of the 
Christian cause, at the historic point from -which our in- 
vestigations must start. 

In its work twelve apostles were engaged, eleven of 
whom had been chosen directly by our Lord, and one by 
the church at Jerusalem. This number corresponded 
with the twelve tribes of Israel, and all their correlative 
symbols ; such as the twelve pillars of the altar, the 
twelve precious stones of the High Priest's breast- 
plate, the twelve loaves of shew bread, and the twelve 
gates, and twelve foundations of the apocalyptic New Je- 
rusalem. Besides these, there were seventy preachers, 
who had been subsequently appointed. All of these 
were good men and true, adapted to the work unto 
which they were called, but not one of them was a lib- 
erally educated man ; and therefore, not one of them 
was qualified to carry the gospel into the highly cul- 
tured regions of the West, where it w r as sure to be chal- 
lenged at every step by the acutest minds, the keen- 
est debaters, the shrewdest logicians, the profounclest 
philosophers of the world. Among her six thousand 
converts, Christianity had not one man who, without 
miraculous aid, was prepared to grapple in her defense 
and for her propagation wdth her mightiest earthly foe, 
that scientific and philosophic western learning, whose 
prodigious energies were all subordinated to the sup- 
port of paganism. Here then was a necessity, a real, 
pressing necessity, for the command of the ascended 



316 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Lord to his church was : " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature ;" and adaptation, 
in respect to qualification, ever has been, and will be, 
the law of successful operation. 

Let us now, in imagination, go back some twenty 
years before the martyrdom of Stephen, which must 
have transpired within about three months after the 
crucifixion of our adorable Lord, and we shall see how 
Providence was preparing a man to meet the exigency 
to which we have referred — a man who should be quali- 
fied to preach Christ, and him crucified, in the focal 
points of worldly civilization. 

Where shall he be found? Not in Jerusalem, not 
beside the lake of Galilee, not in any portion of the 
Holy Land, but far up north-west, in Asia Minor, on 
the northern coast of the Mediterranean, in a country 
called Cilicia. There is a large city, Tarsus by name, 
located on the river Cydnas. It is a famous city. It 
is the seat of one of the three great universities of the 
world. Sardanapulas, Cyrus, Alexander the Great, 
and Caesar have lived here. Cicero, at one time, was 
governor of Tarsus. Here Mark Antony first saw the 
splendid, but corrupt Cleopatra. Here the imperial 
Augustus lavished royal honors and treasures. Here 
art, science, philosophy, eloquence and literature flour- 
ish. Strabo says, " The city of Tarsus attained, in very 
early times, great eminence in philosophy and all kinds 
of learning, so that, in science and art, it surpassed the 
fame even of Athens and Alexandria, and its citizens 
themselves were distinguished for individual excellence 



THE GREAT MAN. 317 



in these elevated pursuits." Within it is an object, to 
us, of surpassing interest. It is not its great univer- 
sity, not the grand products of art which decorate its 
streets and buildings, not the magnificent mementos 
left by monarchs, warriors and orators. Nay, it is a 
little boy, whose young soul is just beginning to ex- 
pand amid these culturing influences. Ah ! no one 
but God has the faintest conception of the magnificent 
destiny which awaits that black-eyed Hebrew boy, as 
he plays on the river's verdant banks, over the sur- 
rounding storied hills, and through these streets ! 

Let us pause here. The youthful Saul is before you. 
Thoughts of others, only a little older than this one, 
rush upon my mind. South-easterly from Tarsus lies, 
embosomed in hills, the lake of Gennesaret. On its 
shores, at this very time, are boys, rough, rude, stal- 
wart youths, of whom the world is to hear. Their 
names are Simon, Andrew, James, Philip, and Bar- 
tholomew. At Hebron there is a remarkable boy, whose 
name is John, and who is the joy of aged parents. At 
Nazareth, too, there is a wondrous boy, such an one as 
earth never saw before, and shall never see again : his 
name is Jesus. Combine now, in thought, that brother- 
hood of boys, who, in the purpose of the Eternal, are 
to spiritually revolutionize the entire race of mankind, 
and what transcendent interest encircles them ! But 
the men of that day knew it not, any more than we 
know the future of the youth by whom we are sur- 
rounded. How high the privilege, how solemn the 
duty of doing what we can to prepare them for the re- 



318 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



sponsibilities, far greater, perhaps, than we dream of, 
which may await them ! 

The following facts are recorded concerning the youth 
of Saul. He was early and strictly taught in the doc- 
trines of Judaism; and inasmuch as the Jewish Rabbins 
taught that " he who does not teach his son a trade, 
trains him to steal," we are not surprised to learn that 
Saul was taught the then popular and useful trade of 
tent-making. How useful a knowledge of this busi- 
ness became to him in after years, his history plainly 
shows. Having obtained what education he could at 
Tarsus, without entering the great pagan university, he 
w T as sent to Jerusalem, where, amidst purely Judaistic 
influences, his faith might be confirmed and his general 
education prosecuted. At this period he is supposed 
to have been eighteen or twenty years of age. There 
he entered a celebrated school, which had been founded 
sixty years previously by Hillel, the father of Simeon, 
and was then conducted by the learned Gamaliel. Such 
was the professional eminence enjoyed by this great 
teacher, that he was called, " The beauty of the law;" 
and Luke informs us that u he was had in reputation 
of all the people." 

Saul, as a student, is now before us. Easily we 
can conceive the ambition which fired his zealous, fresh 
manhood, inducing severe application and unremitting 
toil, in order to qualify him for the loftiest positional 
altitude, for nothing less that this could have satisfied 
such a mind as his. As a student he possessed rare 
qualifications. He combined in himself the elements 



THE GREAT MAK. 319 



both of Tarsus and Jerusalem; Gentile energy and 
Jewish zeal. 

Between this point and the next that we read of him 
years intervened, into which had been crowded events 
of amazing magnitude. The older boys, whom we saw 
on the lake shore, at Hebron and Nazareth, have all 
grow r n up to manhood. The boy of Nazareth has proved 
to be the long-expected Messiah. The boy of Hebron 
has proved to be the heaven-appointed herald of the 
world's Deliverer. The fisher-boys of Gallilee have 
become his apostles. He has been crucified, and arisen 
from the dead, and ascended to heaven. The day of 
Pentecost, with its miracles, has passed, and the cause, 
which both Jews and Romans believed to have died 
with its originator, still lives, and hath its thousands 
of living convert-witnesses. Saul has long since grad- 
uated from Gamaliel's school, but is still living at Je- 
rusalem, a vigorous, active, scholarly man, of about 
thirty years of age. He is a leading member of the 
sect of the Pharisees, and you can imagine the utter 
contempt with which he, the educated, ambitious, con- 
scientious, haughty Pharisee would regard the new re- 
ligion, which had been founded by a despised N" azar- 
ene, who had been apprehended, tried and executed as a 
malefactor upon a cross; had, therefore, suffered the 
most ignominious of all forms of capital punishment ; 
whose propagators were unlearned, uncultured men, 
chosen from the ranks of humble toil. In all the circles 
of his acquaintance opposition to this supposed heresy 
has been unanimous, and among his fellow-religionists is 



320 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



the settled determination to put it down, to quench its 
increasing flame, if need be, in blood. 

The sacred record, at this juncture, brings him to our 
view, as holding the clothes of those who were stoning 
Stephen to death. 

Did the question ever arise in your mind, as to why 
these executioners laid their clothes at Saul's feet ? 
Why, amidst that crowd, he was selected for this pur- 
pose ? It has in mine, and I have looked in our books 
for an answer, in vain. Allow me to suggest one. 
You will remember that the synagogue, which caused 
Stephen to be apprehended, and which persecuted him 
before the Sanhedrim, and suborned witnesses to estab- 
lish their charge of blasphemy against him, the record 
says, was composed of Jews from five foreign countries. 
It says, too, that one of these was Cilicia. Now this 
was Saul's native land; he was a Cilician, and doubtless 
belonged to this synagogue. If so, from what we know 
of him, we are sure that he was a leading member, and 
took an active part in these proceedings. The Jewish 
law made it imperative on the witnesses, through whose 
testimony a prisoner was condemned to be stoned to 
death, to be the executioners, do the stoning. How 
natural it was, therefore, that when these men stripped 
themselves for their horrid work, they should commit 
their clothes for safe-keeping into the care of one, who 
had been the leading man in summoning and employing 
them? 

This view, which I submit, carries with it the force 
of a moral demonstration, throws light upon the po- 



THE GREAT MAN. 321 



sition of our representative man, whom we find imme- 
diately after exceeding every other persecutor in the 
fiery zeal of his hatred toward the followers of Jesus. 
" He entered into every house, and haling men and 
women committed them to prison." He himself said, 
" Beyond measure I persecuted the church of God." 
So terrific were his persecutions, that the very name of 
" Saul" became as fearful to the saints in Jerusalem, as 
ever that of Nero, or Domitian, or Serverus was to 
those of Rome. At last he could find no more victims 
in the Holy City, for the disciples who had escaped 
death and imprisonment, had fled into other parts. 
Now, surely, we would think, if ignorant of the facts, 
that this mighty man of blood, whose fury has spared 
neither men nor defenseless women, would have ceased 
from his dreadful work. But he did not. Others ceased, 
he would not. The great elements of his nature were 
aroused by his superior zeal for Judaism, perhaps by 
ambition to acquire for himself a name and fame as its 
chief defender, and perhaps — indeed, I feel quite sure 
— that the fact incidentally alluded to in Acts, xxiii. 
16-22, and referred to in Romans, xvi. 7, and xvi. 21, 
that his own sister and her son, his nephew, and other 
relatives had become converts to Christianity, inflamed 
his conscientious zeal into absolute fury. 

He hears that in the far north-east, at Damascus, the 
capital of Syria, three hundred miles distant, a few 
Christians have found an asylum. He determines to 
apprehend them, and having obtained letters of author- 
ity from the High Priest, and gathering about him a 

14* 



322 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



band of kindred spirits, he commences that memorable 
journey. It is the last of the kind he shall ever take, 
but he knows it not. Riding proudly at the head of 
his gorgeous retinue, the record says u he breathed out 
threatenings and slaughters." Let us follow him on 
the road we knew he took. The first place of note 
which he passes is Gibeah, the birth-place of Saul, Is- 
rael's first king, whose name he bears. The next is 
Bethel, where Jacob slept and dreamed, and who can 
tell but that the same angels who guarded the sleeping 
patriarch seventeen hundred years ago, are now gather- 
ing around this persecutor, the news of whose conver- 
sion they shall soon bear to heaven! Onward he 
proudly rides. Shiloh is passed. The vale of Eph- 
raim is passed between Ebal and Gerizim, u the place 
of cursing and of blessing." Entering Galilee, he 
passes along the western shore of its beautiful lake, 
and after coursing over a sterile country for many a 
weary mile, in the far distance he sees the white domes 
of Damascus glittering in the rays of the sun. Nearer 
and nearer he approaches those gates, within which are 
the victims he seeks. how little he dreams of what 
he shall experience, of what a change awaits him before 
he shall enter them, or of the circumstances in which 
his feet shall press the pavements of that proud city ! 
And now the predestined hour has come, the pre- 
destined place is reached, where the smiter is to bo 
smitten, not by the red hand of vengeance, but by the 
power of sovereign grace. Jehovah Jesus hath better 
work for this great, but guilty soul. Behold ! what 



THE GREAT MAN. 323 



transpires. A great light suddenly shines upon them. 
It is not the concentrated rays of an oriental sun, for 
by its miraculous brilliancy and power, while all are 
struck speechless, Saul falls to the earth like a dead 
man. But he is not dead, for he hears thrilling words, 
saying, in tones of unearthly tenderness, " Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me?" Tremblingly he asks, 
"Who art thou, Lord?" and his whole soul is over- 
whelmed with the answer, "lam Jesus of Nazareth, 
w^hom thou persecutest ! J? 

Conceive now, if you can, the depth of the emo- 
tions which agitate this strong, profound spirit at this 
unlooked-for, overwhelming intelligence ! Imagine the 
momentous conclusions to which, as with electric ra- 
pidity, that vigorous intellect must have rushed ! The 
crucified Christ lives. He is divine ! Christianity is 
true ! Ah ! how the madness, the criminality of his 
persecuting career stares him in the face ! How his 
inbred and life-cherished views fade away into vain 
illusions, his boasted self-righteousness into loathsome 
filthiness, his intellectual pride into sheer folly, his 
heart-bitterness melts into tenderness ! But the love- 
tones are again sounding in his ears, saying, "It is 
hard for thee to kick against the pricks ;" i.e., "it is hard 
for such a soul as yours to go on in the course you are 
pursuing, to resist my truth and its high claims on 
you." 

Now the work is complete. Sovereign grace hath 
conquered and won that mighty heart, which neither 
the preaching of apostles, nor the martyr death of 



324 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



Stephen, arguments or miracles, had touched. That 
heart is changed, that will subdued, for he cries in 
earnest and submissive simplicity, "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" He recognizes Jesus, whom he 
hated, as Lord, owns him conqueror, bows to his au- 
thority, and dedicates himself to his service. He is 
told what to do, and perfectly obedient, he is led like a 
blind child into the house of Judas, where he remains 
three days ; and then one of the very Christians whom 
he came three hundred miles to apprehend and take 
bound back to Jerusalem, comes to him with the fra- 
ternal words, which fail like music on his listening ears, 
4 c Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared 
unto thee in the way, hath sent me unto thee, that thou 
mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy 
Ghost." His blindness departs, and he stands forth a 
converted man — a Christian. Soon after, he was bap- 
tized, and immediately entered upon the ministry to 
which he was called. 

The following is the briefest possible outline of his 
life, as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

For a season he remained and preached in Damascus 
to the amazement of both Christians and Jews, and then 
departed into Arabia, whence he returned to the scene 
of his profession of Christianity and labored three years. 
A terrible persecution having broken out against him 
and the disciples there, he escaped death by being let 
down out of a window in a basket, and went to Jeru- 
salem. The first Christian he met there was Peter, 
who welcomed him most heartily, but the mass of be- 



THE GREAT MAN. 325 



lievers were at first afraid of him, even after his nearly 
four years' service in the good cause. He remained in 
Jerusalem only fifteen days, and then, after solemn 
public services, he was sent upon his first great mission 
to the Gentiles. Immediately he started for Tarsus, 
his native home, and subsequently, with Barnabas, 
labored at Antioch ; and wherever they preached only 
a brief period, churches were organized. Having heard 
of the great sufferings of the disciples at Jerusalem, 
because of a famine that prevailed, he took up contri- 
butions on their behalf in the churches, and bore them, 
in company with Barnabas, to the Holy City. After a 
brief season, these two icere set apart by the church 
at Jerusalem, as missionaries to the heathen world. 
At first they went to Cyprus, where, having wrought 
his first miracle, his name was changed to Paul. Thence 
they departed to different points in Asia Minor, and 
after wonderful success, and equally wonderful escapes, 
they returned to Antioch, and joyfully rehearsed what 
the Lord had done through them. There Paul lived 
several years ; and the next we hear of him is as a del- 
egate in attendance at the council held at Jerusalem. 
After its adjournment, he made his second missionary 
tour alone, and preached in Lystra, Iconium, Ephesus, 
and Galatia, where he suffered immensely. Thence, in 
company with Silas and Timothy, he passed over in- 
to Europe, preached, was imprisoned and scourged 
at Philippi, whence he departed for Thessalonica and 
Berea, where great success attended him. Then we 
read of him at Athens proclaiming "The unknown 



326 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



God" to the learned Areopagites, next at Corinth, a 
second time at Ephesus, and again returning to Greece, 
where he abode three months, and wrote his " Epistle 
to the Romans." This w r ork completed, w T e see him a 
third time visiting Ephesus, where he was apprehended 
and brought before Felix. You remember how Felix 
trembled before the words of his prisoner ; how his 
successor, Festus, upon Agrippa's advice and Paul's 
own appeal, sent him to Rome, and how he suffered 
shipwreck on his way thither. There he wrote his 
Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon, and 
others. At this period he was an aged man, and yet, 
when strangely liberated from prison, we find him still 
fired with missionary zeal. He at once visited many of 
the churches he had founded in Asia ; and then pass- 
ing again over into Europe, he carried the gospel into 
Spain, and perhaps into Britain. 

From this perilous journey he returned a fourth time 
to Ephesus, where he wrote his Epistles to Timothy and 
Titus. Thence he went to the island of Crete; and 
finally, after this most eventful life, we find him once 
more at Rome, immured in a dungeon, whence he came 
forth only to suffer martyrdom by being beheaded, which 
terrible fate he met heroically, with the victor shout on 
his lips, " I am now ready to' be offered. I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 
faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
will give to me at that day ; and not to me only, but 
unto all them also that love his appearing." 



THE GREAT MAN. 327 



One important object of this lecture is novo accom- 
plished. You have compressed in this short space, an 
outline view of an eventful life, which stretched over 
sixty-eight years. This, however, was all we needed 
to give a distinct view of those labors, which throw light 
upon the character and capabilities of the man himself. 
What else I have to say shall be gathered under the 
following points : 

1. With reference to his personal appearance, 
we have the following hints. History records that he 
was derisively called by his enemies, "the high-nosed, 
bald-pated Galilean." Nicephorus thus describes him: 
•• Paul was a man of low stature ; his complexion was 
fair, his countenance grave, his head small, his eyes 
strangely beautiful and expressive, his nose long, and 
his beard thick.'' The " golden-mouthed*' Chrysostom 
said : " Although Paul was not very tall in body, per- 
haps less than five feet, lie was tall enough to reach 
to heaven." 

2. With reference to his mental qualities ', education, 
spiritual gifts, and ecclesiastical offices, suffice it to 
say, at this point, that you behold in him an intellect 
of the highest order, combining the genius of the East 
with the acuteness and consecutiveness of the West. 
You behold that intellect enjoying the choicest educa- 
tional advantages, You behold in him, moreover, the 
superadded gifts of the Holy Ghost ; and all these qual- 
ifying him for the eminent position of " Apostle to the 
Gentiles." How grand the scope of that providence 
which found a Jew. born among the Gentiles at Tar- 



828 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



sus, and " born again" among them at Damascus, who. 
by his rare combination of natural elements and mirac- 
ulous conversion, was so admirably adapted to the mighty 
work of making known Christ to the teeming multi- 
tudes of that, to the Jew, " outside world.' 5 Paul de- 
voutly and gratefully felt that such was the case. Hence 
he says, in glowing words, " that it pleased God, who 
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me 
by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, tha,t / might 
preach him among the heathen" What a display of 
the sovereignty of grace is here made ! 

3. The aggregate of his labors and sufferings in the 
prosecution of this great work was immense. During 
more than thirty years he toiled chiefly in great Gen- 
tile cities, shaking the very foundations of Paganism, 
successfully encountering the cunning of Judaism, the 
opposition of philosophy, the craft of idolatry, and all 
the combined elements of universal depravity. He 
planted Christian churches in most of the central points 
of western civilization, from the plains of Damascus to 
the olive groves of Spain, in spite of prodigious antago- 
nisms, before which an inferior man would have been 
disheartened. He gave to doctrinal Christianity its 
first systematic development and form. In its elucida- 
tion, he blended the learning and logic of the schools 
with the light and love, which streamed into his capa- 
cious soul from the heart of his ever present and 
adored Lord. As to sufferings, what man in ecclesias- 
tical history has left such a record as this ? "In labors 
more abundant, in strifes above measure, in prisons 



THE GREAT MAX. 329 



frequent, in deaths oft. Five times received I of the 
Jews forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with 
rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck : 
a night and a day I have been in the deep. In jour- 
neyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, 
in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the hea- 
then, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, 
in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In 
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hun- 
ger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 
Besides these things that are without, that which cometh 
upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 75 

4. But he had other experiences than these — exal- 
tations as they are termed — which few if any of earth 
have ever been favored with. Although, as he him- 
self says, "born out of due time,' 5 Jesus appeared to 
him in glory, not only at Damascus, where he person- 
ally and vocally gave him his high commission, but 
again and again, at other times, he appeared and made 
special revelations, which "exalted" him above con- 
scious suffering, and made him victorious over all his 
foes. Moreover, " whether in the body or out of the 
body 5 ' he "could not tell," but sure he was, that he 
was "caught up into the third heavens, 55 where he 
heard things he might never communicate to mortals ! 

5. And of his influence, past, present, and jwo- 
spective, who shall tell its sum? I can not. In the 
effort to compute it my brain grows dizzy, my imagin- 
ation reels, my tongue falters ! Why, look over the 
world at this very hour, and you see " historians with 



330 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



their Pauline events ; chronologists with their Pauline 
dates; geographers with their Pauline places; archi- 
tects with their Pauline buildings ; painters with their 
Pauline pictures ; kings, heroes, and orators with their 
Pauline names ; logicians with their Pauline logic and 
thinking ; sculptors with their Pauline statues ; poets 
w ith their Pauline verses ; theologians with their Paul- 
ine theology and literature ; churches, states, and na- 
tions with their Pauline memorials." The eloquent 
French preacher, Monod, said, " Paul projected bis 
shadow over the vast extent of the Roman empire," 
but to-day that shadow is over the entire Christian 
world. 

6. Friend, am I not justified in styling Paul the 
representative of true human greatness? Let us 
reflect somewhat more closely on this single point. 
What are the elements of true greatness ? Is the 
highest order of mere intellect one of them ? As- 
suredly he possessed it. Is the possession of a heart, 
full of tender sympathies and strong affections, another? 
This he had. His heart was loving and tender. " What 
mean ye to weep and break my heart?" was his tear- 
ful exclamation to the Ephesian elders. Is a wide 
range of profound learning, high scholarly attainment, 
still another ? He possessed it. Are a sanctified moral 
nature, and a harmonious development of the spiritual 
and intellectual powers, fruiting out in spotless in- 
tegrity ; pure and beautiful character, soich elements? 
You find them in his life. Is strength of will, directed 
and controlled by high principles of truth, another ? 



THE GREAT MAN. 331 



Such was his. Is true humility still another ? See it 
beaming forth in utterances like these, " Unto me, who 
am less than the least of all saints/ 5 "of sinners of 
whom I am chief." Are renunciations of worldly 
honors, worldly aggrandizements, scholarly fame, and 
a devotement of one's entire nature and acquisitions 
during a lifetime, amid poverty and persecutions, to the 
welfare of humanity and the glory of God, crowning 
features of real greatness ? His record shows that all 
of these were true of him. Is a noble external deport- 
ment, polished yet natural, refined yet unobtrusive, 
dignified yet not haughty, the outward badge of such 
greatness? Such was Paul's. An English skeptic 
was so struck with this that he exclaimed, " I will be- 
lieve any thing that Paul states on his own knowledge, 
for he was a true gentleman." What dignity, ap- 
proaching high sublimity, mingled with manly tender- 
ness, you behold manifested when he stood a prisoner, 
with a chain clasping both of his arms, before Agrippa, 
after that masterly defense which has scarcely a par- 
allel in the annals of the world's literature, when the 
convicted king said, " Paul, almost thou persuadest 
me to be a Christian,'' and the immediate response of 
the apostle was, " I would to God that not only thou, 
but also all who hear me this day were both almost 
and altogether such as I am," and then, lifting his 
arms, while the clank of his chain rang through the 
hall, he added, with subdued voice, " except these 
bonds." 

Some have supposed that Paul was not an orator, in 



332 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



the ordinary sense of that term. Perhaps this infer- 
ence has grown out of the expression in one of the 
epistles, where we read that "his bodily presence was 
weak and his speech contemptible." But these words 
afford no ground for the impression when properly 
considered. Paul did not say that of himself. He 
says that certain Corinthians spake thus of him. 
It doubtless was the utterance of prejudice, or of per- 
sons who could not appreciate the character of the 
apostle's eloquence. Such utterances in reference to 
distinguished men are not uncommon. It is said 
that there were audiences in Great Britain who " de- 
spised Poster and sneered at Chalmers and even Hall." 
I have myself heard men affirm that Daniel Webster 
was no orator. It must be remembered that " there 
are three kinds of eloquence : that of passion and sym- 
pathy, that of pure intellect, and the eloquence of imag- 
ination. To the first of these all respond ; of the two 
last Paul's was a compound, and these have only power 
upon selected spirits." It was not therefore adapted 
to masses of men, as was that of Peter. I beg you, 
however, to bear in mind, that if there were those in 
licentious and pleasure-loving Corinth who thought 
Paul's " speech contemptible," the people of Lystra 
named him after Mercury, their god of eloquence. 

And more than even this, is the testimony corrobo- 
rating the view I have presented. Think of him at 
Athens, the culminating point of earth's civilization. 
Did a single Athenian orator or sage, a single member 
of the learned court of the Areopagus, composed as it 



THE GREAT MAX. 383 



was of men of the highest culture, accustomed to listen 
to the loftiest eloquence, before whom he delivered an 
oration on Mars Hill — did one of these. I ask. utter a 
word derogatory to the character of his oratory ? Verily 
not. They felt that his oration contained elements of 
power, unknown in those of Pericles. Demosthenes, or 
any of their famed orators. They felt " that there was 
a richness fuller than that of their own Plato, and an 
awfulness grander than that of their imperial Jove' 7 in 
those few sublime sentences, in which, with loftiest 
genius, Paul condensed all the primal truths of nature 
and of religion, decorating their utterance with classi- 
cal quotations, and concluding with majestic and irre- 
sistible appeals. Respectfully they said to the " Tent- 
maker of Tarsus,*' "ire will hear thee again of this 
matter,'' and one of their number, Dionysius, abandon- 
ing his philosophy and paganism, gratefully received 
Christianity. Specimens of his written eloquence are 
preserved for us in his epistles. He is emphatically 
the epistle writer of the Xew Testament. Fourteen of 
the twenty-one came from his prolific pen. And as we 
read them, what power of analysis, breadth of thought, 
irresistibleness of argument, wealth of illustration, 
weight of pathos, graphicness of picturing, energy of 
denunciation, sublimities of imagination, depth of ten- 
derness, bursts of enthusiasm and power of practical 
appeal meet our astonished gaze ! He was the profound 
theologian, triumphant controversialist, invincible de- 
fender of Christianity during the age in which he lived. 
May I not now conclude that your estimate of his char- 



334 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



acter coincides with the title I have given him, " Paul, 
the Great Man." 

We have space left, only to notice a few of the many 
practical points this subject suggests. 

One of these is this : It is a sorrowful fact in re- 
gard to most of those whom the world calls great \ 
that they have been such, not as a whole, but in one 
or at most a few particulars. 

There have been great w T arriors, great statesmen, 
great philosophers, great artists, great orators, great 
business men, great philanthropists and great religion- 
ists. But with greatness in one or more of these par- 
ticulars, has there not almost always been found weak- 
nesses, deficiencies, and sometimes even contemptible 
and degrading vices ? Is not intellectual greatness 
often found associated with spiritual and moral debase- 
ment ? The saddest moan I ever heard over the grave 
of New England's mightiest mental giant was, that his 
moral nature attained such poor development when 
compared with his world-admired intellect. It is a sad 
fact that many who stand highest now in the world's 
esteem, on account of their celebrity in single traits of 
character, or performances on certain fields of action, 
would lose even the respect of all good citizens, if the 
whole truth concerning them was known. They are 
not great men. 

But in Paul you see one worthy of this title. You 
see not merely a great thinker, a great writer, a great 
orator ; one possessed of great courage, patriotism, phi- 
lanthropy and learning ; one exerting a great influence, 



THE GREAT MAX. 660 

but vou see A GREAT MAS. You discover his wholes 
natur . intellectual and spiritual, harnio- 

n'ou- l. You behold a purity of private char- 

r unstained, a public life unblemished, greatness 
of mind and heart, acquisition and position, sufferings 
and exploits, all combined, and the grand combination 
sanctified to the sublimest purposes by the supernatural 
power of a divine religion. 0, as I look at his character 
towering up above surrounding humanity, it seems to 
me 

" Like some tall cliff that lifts its awful form. 
Swells from fci s vale an 1 mi Iway leaves the storm 
Which, tho' round its breast the rolling clouds are spread. 
Eternal. sunshine settles on its head." 

Another of these points is this. We can not fai> 
to he impressed with how much this great man was 
indebted to Christianity. 

With all his rare natural endowments, suppose he 
had remained in the spiritual condition he was when 
the exalted and sovereign Jesus met him on the road to 
Damascus. What would he then have become ? Per- 
haps the successor of Gamaliel : the most learned of the 
Rabbis : the High Priest: at once the head of the San- 
hedrim and the idol of Judaism. But what would his 
manhood have become ? His mind never could have 
reached the expansion and power it did. His heart 
would have retained its increasingly corrupt and cor- 
rupting elements. His influence would have been nar- 
row as the ever-narrowing limits of Judaism. Plis life 
would have been a failure ! Xo one knew this as well 



336 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



as he did himself ; and, therefore, when his fame was 
widest, his influence was greatest, he wrote, out of a 
grateful soul, these words, " By the grace of God, I am 
what I am," and his epistles abound with similar ac- 
knowledgments. What was essential to him is essential 
to all. Nothing but an experimental acquaintance with 
the regenerating, sanctifying and inspiring influence of 
the grace of Christianity can enable any man to become 
truly great. 

The last of these points we have time to notice is this : 
What a proof of the truth of Christianity this 
history presents ! 

The main facts of Paul's life, as recorded in the 
New Testament, are fully confirmed by profane writers. 
That he was a prominent and powerful enemy of the 
gospel ; that he suddenly and strangely became a con- 
vert to it ; that he sacrificed the brightest prospects 
and spent his whole subsequent life in its service, and 
died a martyr to its principles, are facts as well attested 
as any recorded in the history of the world. The early 
writers against Christianity confirm them. I beg you 
to notice only a simple part of this proof, that ivhich 
is found in the conversion of such a man. To only 
the facts of the death, resurrection, and ascension of 
Christ is greater prominence given in the New Testa- 
ment than that which is given to this conversion. It 
is set forth minutely and repeatedly. Besides allusions 
to it in the epistles, three distinct and detailed accounts 
are given of it in the Acts of the Apostles. It was in- 
deed wonderful, amazing. But to none was it so sur- 



THE GREAT MAN. 337 



prising as to himself. He gloried in it. He related it 
publicly again and again. We may imagine him. as 
exclaiming, 

" See me, see me, once a rebel, 

Vanquished at his cross I lie ; 
Cross ! to tame earth's proudest, able — 

Who was e'er so proud as I ? 
He convinced me, He subdued me ; 
He chastised me, He renewed me ; 
The nails that nailed, the spear that slew him, 
Transfixed my heart, and bound me to him ! 
See me, see me, once a rebel, 

Vanquished at his feet I lie !" 

What but a. divine religion could have wrought this 
surprising work ! Christianity is divine. It is eternal 
truth. By its fruits we know it. When attended by the 
Holy Spirit, it is more than a match for the combined 
trinity of depravity, " the world, the flesh, and the 
devil." It can subdue the most bitter opposition, 
humble the proudest soul, soften and regenerate the 
hardest heart, and change the most obdurate will. A$ 
old writer has said, " If Stephen had not prayed, Saul 
would not have been converted." 0, then, people of 
God, ye who feel and know that "the gospel is the 
power of God unto salvation," fear not to pray for the 
most wicked men, for those who, like Saul, seem most 
unapproachable to ordinary influences. He who, in 
answer, we believe, to prayer, met and sweetly tri- 
umphed over the proud, haughty, persecuting Pharisee 
before the gates of Damascus, still reigns. "All 
power is given to him in heaven and in earth." Those 



338 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 



for whom you pray can not be more hopeless than 
Saul was, and yet our sovereign Lord had only to re- 
veal himself, speak the life-inspiring words, and like a 
child, subdued, melted, humbled, the persecutor lay at 
his feet. Then pray, pray ; pray earnestly, pray be- 
lievingly, pray perseveringly, and ye shall have occa- 
sion to adore anew the omnipotency of grace. 

" And now unto Him who is able to do exceeding 
abundantly above all that w r e can ask or think, accord- 
ing to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory 
in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, 
world without end. Amen." 



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Cowper. . 


3 vols. 


Skelton. . 


3 vol*. 


Donne. 


1 vol. 


Southey. . 


10 vols. 


Dryden. . 


5 vols. 


Spenser. . 


5 vols. 


Falconer. . 


1 vol. 


Surrey. 


1 vol. 


Gay. . 


2 vols. 


Swift. 


3 vols. 


Goldsmith. 


1 vol. 


Thomson. . 


2 vols. 


Gray. 


1 vol. 


Vaughan. . 


1 vol. 


Herbert. . 


1 vol. 


Watts. 


1 vol. 


Herrick. . 


2 vols. 


White. 


1 vol. 


Hood. 


4 vols. 


Wordsworth. . 


7 vols. 


Keats. 


1 vol. 


Wyatt. 


1 vol. 


Montgomery. 


5 vols. 


Young. 


2 vols. 



The remainder of the series will be issued as fast as the volumes 
can be prepared. 



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